As Long As We Remeber
by Red-eyed dragon gurl
Summary: MAJOR KujaXOriginal Character fic, that goes from Pre-game to after-game. what would happen if Kuja had gotten stuck on Gaia when he was a kid, and meets a strange summoner who can't summon? chapter 21 is UP! Happy Holidays!
1. Alone For A While

REDG: ok, this is my latest ficcy! Read and enjoy! (it isn't in script format! Lol) It might seem a tad boring at first, but just keep reading! It might get slightly AU-ish later! And some of the chapters'll have names from FF lyrics (especially Melodies of Life) Oh yeah, thankies to Sarah( my editor and friend), who helped me write this! She helped me out with all with descriptions and stuff, cos I'm no good at it! Lol!  
  
Disclaimer: I don't own Final Fantasy 9, any of the characters, or any of the songs in any Final Fantasy game. That would be Square-Enix, those selfish idiots! lol  
  
~ ~ ~  
  
As Long As We Remember  
  
Chapter 1  
  
Alone For A While  
  
Bran Bal, a haven of soul-less blonde-haired-blue-eyed people with tails walking around called Genomes. With the exception of one guy, a pre-teen with long silver hair, but had a tail and blue eyes like the others. (A/n: any guesses on who it is? ^^ kinda obvious though). They all lived their boring soul-less lives on Terra, their planet.  
  
"Kuja" a person called dully.  
  
The guy with silver hair had heard someone call his name, but didn't feel like getting up.  
  
"Kuja" the person called again in the same tone.  
  
"What?!" Kuja snarled.  
  
The person who had been calling him was a small female genome, probly about 8 years old. She just stared at him blankly and said, "Garland wants to see you"  
  
Kuja snorted, "tell the old man to get out here if he wants to talk"  
  
The girl didn't move. She just stood there staring at Kuja.  
  
"Alright! I'm going." He muttered.  
  
He followed the girl into what looked like a small house. Inside was a giant blue stone, and several Genomes were crowded around it and staring. They walked past them and down a set of stairs to the room.  
  
Inside the room was an old man, Garland. He was standing next to a very small, newly-created Genome boy, who looked just like the rest: blonde.  
  
"Do you know who this is?" Garland asked.  
  
Kuja shrugged.  
  
"Its your brother, Zidane."  
  
"Yeah, he's my brother. Just like all the other Genomes out there. The only difference is that you gave me a soul"  
  
Garland shook his head, "No, he has a soul. He has to have a soul to be the new Angel of Death"  
  
Kuja watched Zidane for a minute. The kid seemed to actually be about 3 or four years old, even though he had just been created. He was sitting on the floor and seemed to be trying to chase his tail.  
  
"Ri-i-i-i-i-i-i-ight. Him? As the new Angel of Death?" Kuja muttered sarcastically.  
  
Garland glared at him, "I want you to train him. Maybe go visit Gaia, but be back in a few days. I need to keep records on how fast he's improving"  
  
Zidane laughed, "Gaia."  
  
And he just walked out of the room, leaving Kuja and Zidane by themselves.  
  
Kuja gave a fake smile and asked, "Zidane, you wanna go train on Gaia?"  
  
Zidane stopped chasing his tail and laughed, "Gaia! Yeah!"  
  
"You wanna spend the rest of you miserable life there?" Kuja asked.  
  
The kid tried to figure out what Kuja had just said, but he only knew a few words.  
  
"Yeah!" Zidane said finally.  
  
"Spoken like a true blonde" Kuja muttered, "Alright, let's go find the Invincible"  
  
They walked outside. Well, Kuja walked. Zidane skipped and kept saying "Gaia" over and over again. They headed out of Bran Bal, to get inside a huge airship, the Invincible. Zidane wandered around the inside of the ship while Kuja started to get the ship ready for flight.  
~ ~ ~ The flight from Terra to Gaia wasn't easy. Imagine a roller coaster ride, but with nowhere to sit, meaning no seatbelts. For Zidane, it was the most fun he'd had in his whole 10 minutes of life. When they finally landed outside a large city, Kuja was about to strangle someone. He was looking paler that usual, with a sick shade of green.  
  
"Alright Zidane. Go outside" Kuja said pointing at the door that had opened up.  
  
"Yeah!" Zidane said happily and ran out.  
  
"... ... ... whatever. Time to go back then"  
  
But that was easier said that done. The Invincible flew for a little bit, but was almost totally out of control. Eventually, it just stopped mid- flight and crashed.  
  
~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~  
  
REDG: R&R! 


	2. I've Been Searching Through the Dark

Allo! Here's another chapter! Aiko, I'm sorta adding your character into this chapter! She's WAY younger though! Sorry, But I had already written several chapters out! Your character will be one of the main characters in a few chapters! Sorry! I'm not mad though! Anyways, The Japanese, representing the Gaian language, will be typed normally. The translation will be after the sentence in parentheses- ( )  
  
Chapter 2  
  
I've Been Searching Through the Dark – We Met  
  
Kuja opened his eyes and saw total blackness.  
  
"Did I die?" he thought.  
  
His eyes focused a little better, and he could see that the "total darkness" actually had pinpoints of light; stars.  
  
"Damn" He growled as he got up. He had gotten several bruises from the crash, and he could feel every one of them. His clothes (a blue shirt and pants) were torn.  
  
He looked at the remains of the Invincible and laughed.  
  
"'Invincible' my ass."  
  
A little ways away he could see there was a town (Treno), and decided to head towards it. He was definitely a ways away from where he had dropped Zidane off at.  
  
Inside the town, there were people everywhere. Not like the people in Bran Bal though. None of them looked exactly the same as eachother. They all had different hair colors, eye colors, ... and it all was new to Kuja.  
  
He walked around in a daze staring at all the people, and bumped into a girl that looked like she was about his age, who had blonde hair and green eyes and a horn.  
  
"Agh! Gomen!" she said. (Sorry!)  
  
"Huh?"  
  
The girl rolled her eyes and glared at Kuja, "Gomen. Do ka, shimashita ka?" (what's wrong?)  
  
"I don't understand you"  
  
She smiled and shook Kuja hand, then pointed at herself and said, "Tori Kiiroi to moshimasu." (I'm Tori Kiiroi)  
  
"Is that you name?"  
  
She ignored him, "Sa, ikimasho" (let's go)  
  
Tori started to trot off, and Kuja was just standing there. He finally figured out that she wanted him to follow when she ran back and started to pretty much dragging him.  
  
"Hey! I can walk by myself, thanks!" he snarled.  
  
The girl just giggled and led him into the slums of Treno. She slammed open the door of what looked like an abandoned house. Inside, there was a girl that looked a little older than Tori, and guy who looked like he was in his twenties, and two very little kids.  
  
"Ohayo!" she called. (Hi!)  
  
"Ohayo!" they yelled back.  
  
The older guy with spiky brown hair pointed at Kuja and asked, "Ano hito wa, dare desu ka?" (who's that?)  
  
"koko ni iru no wa, watakushi no yujin desu" (this is my friend)  
  
The guy smiled, "Yuki to moshimasu! Onamae wa?" (I'm Yuki! What's your name?)  
  
Kuja stared at Yuki. He knew he'd been asked something, but didn't know what.  
  
Tori rolled her eyes again, and pointed at Kuja. He stared for a minute, then guessed they wanted to know what his name was.  
  
"Ummm ... Kuja ... to ... moshi- ... ... moshimasu" (my name is kuja)  
  
They all grinned at him and said at once, "Ome ni kakerete, ureshii desu!" (glad to meet you!)  
  
A girl with black hair and a thick layer of lip gloss on said, "Yasashii to moshimasu"  
  
And the other two kids were too bored to even care what was going on. Kuja figured that Yuki looked after all these kids.  
  
Kuja sighed. He was stuck here, he didn't know how to speak the language, and even if he did get back to Terra Garland was going to strangle him.  
  
REGD: please R&R! 


	3. We Laughed

Yay! I found out how to underline stuff and make it bold! whoo-hooo! ; yeah...anyways...on with the fic!

Chapter 3  
  
-**We Laughed**  
  
It had been several months since Kuja had met everyone. Now, he was learning the language from Yuki. He was already getting used to it, and could speak fairly fluently. Except when it came to curse words.  
  
"The language you speak is a VERY old form of Gaian" Yuki said.  
  
"Then why doesn't anyone speak it?" Kuja asked.  
  
"I told you, it's a very old language." Yuki muttered, and started flipping through the pages of a torn book.  
  
"How come you know it?"  
  
"I like to read." He looked up, "And not many people know old Gaian, so you have to learn this. Gods know who taught you to speak. Where are you from?"  
  
Kuja shrugged, "A small town you probly never heard of"  
  
"I think that's a load of bull shit" Yuki muttered.  
  
"What's bull shit?"  
  
"Nevermind. Do you have any brothers and sisters?"  
  
Kuja laughed, "I have a TON of siblings. You could almost say, a planet full of them."  
  
"Geez, sounds like your parents were busy"  
  
"Are Yasashii and Tori your kids?" Kuja asked.  
  
"In a sense, because I take care of all them" Yuki said, "but none of them are really 'my' kids, if you know what I mean. Now go outside and find Tori."  
  
"Ok." Kuja said and walked outside.  
  
Tori was standing right outside the door, waiting for him.  
  
"Hey, Kujaku!"  
  
"I TOLD you! My name is Kuja!"  
  
"Yeah, but it sounds like 'kujaku' so that's what I'm gonna call ya!" Tori said.  
  
"What's a kujaku?"  
  
"It's a type of bird." Tori said, trying to think of a good description, "they're really pretty, or at least the male ones are. They have blue and green feathers and the tail feathers look like they have eyes on them."  
  
"Its called a 'peacock' in your language" Yuki muttered as he walked outside, "I have to go to work, so make sure no one comes in and steals anything.  
  
(a/n: Kuja's name in Japanese is 'Kujaku' and it does mean 'peacock'. Fitting isn't it?)  
  
"We have anything that's worth stealing?" Tori asked sarcastically.  
  
"Shut up" Yuki said and started to walk away.  
  
"Well, whaddya wanna do today?" Tori asked.  
  
"I don't know. Where is Yasashii?"  
  
Tori snorted, "I don't care. Probly shopping for more makeup. Let's go bug the nobles today"  
  
Kuja thought about that for a minute, swishing his tail, "Let's sneak into the Auction House"  
  
"Great idea!!!" Tori yelled, "Alrighty, c'mon!"  
  
They ran up to the Auction House. At one door there was a guard and the other door lead to where they actually had the auctions.  
  
"How do we get the guard away from the door?" Tori whispered, pulling at the silver feathers in Kuja's hair.  
  
"Ow! Don't do that!" Kuja snapped, "And how should I know?"  
  
"We need a distraction" Tori muttered to herself, ignoring Kuja.  
  
Kuja shook his head, "I'm not gonna talk to the guard while you go in! This was my idea, so I'm going in!"  
  
"I wasn't even gonna suggest that, you dumbass!" Tori snapped, then said before Kuja could ask, "I'm NOT gonna tell ya what a dumbass is either. You hafta figure it out!"  
  
Kuja sat down and glared up at Tori as she paced and thought about what to do. Finally, she stopped and said, "That's it! Kujaku, wait here!" and ran off.  
  
"She'd better not be doing something stupid." Kuja growled.  
  
Tori came back with an old man.  
  
"Awww ...Tori! What did you do that for?!"  
  
"Shut up! I know what I'm doing!" she snarled, and said to the old man, "Can you please go talk to that guard over there?"  
  
"Sure, missy" he said and walked slowly over to the guard.  
  
The guard glared at the old man, "What do YOU want?"  
  
"Oh, just someone to talk to." The old man said cheerily.  
  
"Go away you crazy idiot!"  
  
"Crazy? I was crazy once. They locked we in a rubber room. I died. Worms came. Did you say worms?! I HATE worms! They drive me crazy! Did you say crazy? I was crazy once ... "  
  
"That should do for now" Tori whispered, and slipped past the guard who was now yelling at the old man, and begging him to shut up. Kuja laughed, and followed Tori.  
  
Inside, they could hear the auctioneer bid off several expensive items.  
  
"Where do people get money like that?! Kuja asked in awe, staring at the people over the staircase's banister.  
  
"How the hell should I know?!"  
  
"Who owns this place anyways?"  
  
"The King family" Tori said.  
  
"King? They rule Treno?" Kuja asked.  
  
"No, their last name's King. They just have a lot of money." Tori said, while looking around.  
  
"What are we looking for?"  
  
"Anything that's expensive, that we can carry out."  
  
"Like this?" Kuja asked, pointing at a painting.  
  
"yeah, but smaller. That would look a tad obvious"  
  
They searched through the halls, and didn't find anything.  
  
"Geez! I thought rich people left expensive stuff just lying around!" Tori complained.  
  
"You thought wrong" Kuja replied simply.  
  
"shut up, Kujaku" Tori snapped, and pulled on his feathers again.  
  
"HEY!" someone yelled behind them, "WHAT THE HELL ARE YOU TWO PUNKS DOING HERE?!"  
  
Kuja spun around and saw another guard, who was running straight towards them.  
  
"What's a punk?" Kuja asked.  
  
"No time for that! Idiot! Start running!" Tori yelled.

Later on, Yuki found out what had happened, and had to go to the Auction House to pick up Tori and Kuja.  
  
"What the hell happened?!" Yuki asked.  
  
"They were caught sneaking around the King's house" the guard growled and glared at the two kids.  
  
"Can you just let them off this once?"  
  
"Sure." The guard muttered, "But next time you'll have to bail them out of jail, and I don't think you have that kind of money"  
  
"Thank you" Yuki said, ignoring the comment on how much money he earned.  
  
Tori and Kuja walked in silence behind him. Eventually, he stopped, turned around, and yelled, "What the hell were you thinking?!"  
  
"well ... uh ... we ..."  
  
"You WEREN'T thinking! That's what!" Yuki yelled, "Tori, if you do anything like this again, I'm going to saw your horn off!"  
  
Tori's eyes went wide, "But it was Kuja's idea!"  
  
"Kuja! For God's sake, why did you listen to him if you know it was a bad idea? All you had to do was say no!"  
  
Neither of them said anything.  
  
Yuki calmed down a little, before saying, "Alright, you two are going to stay in the slums for the rest of the week. And if I hear that you even went NEAR the Auction House-"  
  
"-You won't!" Tori interrupted hurredly, "We'll stay away from there!"  
  
"Good"  
  
They let Yuki walk ahead a little bit before they started to follow. Tori was glaring fiercely at Kuja.  
  
After a while she growled, "Man! And we didn't even get anything outta this!"  
  
Kuja smiled wickedly and lifted up his torn blue shirt and pulled out a small painting that had a gold frame, and whispered, "Are you sure about that?"  
  
REDG: R&R!


	4. We Held On Fast

REDG: Hi hi! Wow! I got reviews! 0.o lol just a warning: I might not be able to update next week because of Final Exams. Grrrr! Highschool sucks in that sense! Anyways, heres the next chapter!

Chapter 4  
  
-**We Held on Fast**  
  
Kuja and Tori were still not allowed outside of the slums, but they never listened anyways. It was a beautiful day, so why should they spend it in the crappy, broken-down part of the city?  
  
"Where should we go today?" Tori asked, as if nothing had happened the other day.  
  
"Anywhere except the Auction House" Kuja muttered.  
  
"Okay ... how about we go see if Dr. Tot's around?"  
  
"Who?"  
  
"He's the teacher for Princess Garnet" Tori explained.  
  
"Who?"  
  
"... You're hopeless."  
  
Kuja glared at her, but didn't say anything.  
  
She led him past the gates and the fountain at the front of Treno, and over to the noble's side of the city. There was a huge mansion where an old bird- lady (who was obsessed with some kind of coins) lived, a café, and the place where they had card tournaments. Instead of going there, they went to a tall tower that was farther to the left.  
  
"There's a lot of stairs." Kuja said.  
  
"yeah?" Tori said, not really listening, "Maybe Garnet'll be there!"  
  
"What does she look like?"  
  
"Brown hair, brown eyes. Dresses fancey, but she's the princess, so she has a right to"  
  
"Whatever"  
  
They climbed what seemed like a thousand stairs, until they got to the top. There was a guard there; the same guard that had been at the Auction House.  
  
The guard smirked, "Oh, its you two again. You can't come in, because the princess is having a talk with Dr. Tot"  
  
"Why did she come all this way?" Tori asked, "she's a princess! You'd think she'd get to stay at the castle all the time! And how come we never heard about it?!"  
  
The guard shrugged. "What do you care? She's a princess! If she wants to go visit another city, she can. You're still not getting in. Scram, or I'll arrest you two again!"  
  
"Ummm ... will you let me through?" a girl asked behind the guard.  
  
"y-y-yeah! Sure!" He stammered and let a small girl with brown hair through.  
  
She skipped down the stairs happily. Kuja couldn't stop staring, even when Tori started to pull at his hair.  
  
"Ok! You saw her, we get it! Can you PLEASE snap out of it now?!" Tori growled.  
  
"wow ... she's pretty" Kuja said stupidly, swishing his tail.  
  
"Yeah, and she probly thought you were a very pretty girl as well" Tori said crossly. She only made fun of Kuja's looks when she was really mad, or in this case, a little jealous.  
  
"huh?" Kuja said, not even noticing what Tori had just said.  
  
"Guys." Tori muttered. Rolling her eyes, "You're all the same"  
  
Finally. Kuja snapped out of it and smiled, "So, are we going to go see Dr. Tot?"  
  
"No!" Tori snapped, "we're going back"  
  
"Ok" he said and got that dumb look on her face again, "I heard that she's a summoner"  
  
"I am too!" Tori yelled angrily, pointing at the horn on her head, "And I was the one who told you she's a summoner! Geez!"  
  
"wow" Kuja said, not listening.  
  
Tori grinned evilly and said, "Have you ever heard of 'make-up'?"  
  
"What?" Kuja asked.  
  
She giggled and ran back to the slums. When they got to the house, Tori told him to wait outside. A few minutes later she came back with a bag that belonged to Yasashii, the black-haired girl. Inside the bag was a ton of eye shadow, lip-gloss, and nail polish.  
  
"That's Yasashii's stuff" Kuja said, eying the bag nervously.  
  
"What'cha giving me that look for?" Tori grumbled, opening the bag and pulling out some mascara.  
  
"What's that for?"  
  
"It's supposed to make you look like you have thicker eyelashes." Tori answered, "Now get over here, pretty-boy"

* * *

REDG: Well, questions? Comments? Oh, by the way, NO FLAMERS! Flames are EEEEEEVIL! XD Please review. Reviews make me go googly-eyed.


	5. And Then We Said Goodbye

REDG: Sorry, but I'm skipping ahead a few years in the story, to when Kuja leaves Treno! Whaaaa! This is going to be a VERY short chapter because I can't stand writing sad stuff.  
  
Chapter 5  
  
And Then We Said Goodbye  
  
Several years had past, and Kuja was getting ready to leave, and of course, Tori wasn't at all happy about that.  
  
"Why the hell you hafta leave?!" Tori yelled angrily.  
  
"I got a job in Alexandria." He said, not looking at her.  
  
"But can't you get a job here?!" She yelled, frustrated, "C'mon!!!"  
  
"I'll come and visit everyone!" Kuja said defensively.  
  
"That's not the same though! Hey! How 'bout I come with you?"  
  
"No. You have a well-paying job here." Kuja growled, "You work at the bloody Auction House now! Imagine that! Remember when we where kids and we snuck into there?"  
  
"Don't you go changing the subject!" Tori yelled.  
  
Kuja sighed, "well, I told you I'll come visit when I get the chance."  
  
There was a long silence. Kuja grabbed a small suitcase and started to pack the few things that he owned in it.  
  
Eventually, Tori asked, "You'll remember us right?"  
  
"How could I forget?"  
  
"Its just what people do. They forget" Tori answered.  
  
"Well, as long as we remember, we'll see eachother again. Its that easy." Kuja said, closing the suitcase and then pointed at Tori's horn on her head, "And when I get back, you'd better learn how to summon! It pretty sad that you're a summoner who can't summon!"  
  
"Dumbass" Tori muttered, "Wait! I gotta give you something before you leave!"  
  
She ran to the other side of the room and dug around in Yasashii's old stuff. She had gone away to Lindblum a year ago, and left most of her old stuff.  
  
Tori came back, grinning and carrying Yasashii's old makeup bag, and tossed it to Kuja. She wanted to burst out laughing as he opened the suitcase and put the makeup bag in. No one had ever told him only women wear makeup.  
  
"what's so funny?" Kuja asked.  
  
"Nothing." Tori giggled, "get going, or the airship'll leave without you! And if you don't come and visit, I'm gonna come after you and pull those feathers out of your hair!"  
  
"I'll be back!" he called.  
  
"Promise?"  
  
"Promise!"  
  
REDG: well, that wasn't too bad. R&R! 


	6. Voice From The Past

> REDG: once again, I'm gonna skip a few years! Sorry! After this, I'll stop skipping years! Well, until the end, but that's a long way off! Anywho, I'm introducing a new character: Aiko! Enjoy!  
  
Chapter 6  
  
**A Voice From the Past  
**  
Tori had gotten tickets to go to Alexandria to see "I Want to be Your Canary" . Since it was going to be in the castle, and because it was a special event (Princess Garnet's 16th birthday) the tickets had cost a LOT!  
  
She had saved up for years to get these tickets, and she was going to make sure she got to Alexandria. So, she waited outside Treno for the airship to come. Eventually, Yuki came outside and stood with her.  
  
"You're awful exited to leave" He muttered, "You've been standing here for 2 hours, and you still have to wait another 30 minutes before the airship comes"  
  
"Its just a few hours!" Tori exclaimed, "Geez! I need a break!"  
  
"I know why you REALLY want to go" Yuki said, grinning.  
  
"yeah? So do I! I've saved up for 4 years, and I'll be damned if I don't go and watch this damned play!"  
  
"Its NOT a 'damned play'! It's a classic!" Yuki snapped, "And you want to go to Alexandria to see if you can find Kuja"  
  
Tori didn't say anything. That was true. Kuja hadn't come to visit, like he had promised. He hadn't even written a letter! Even so, Tori wasn't about to admit she missed him.  
  
"Kuja? Why would I wanna see HIM again? If he can't even bother to write a damned letter, why the hell would I wanna fly all the way over to Aleandria just to see him?!"  
  
"So you can yell at him." Yuki said simply.  
  
After a few minutes, the airship landed and Tori exitedly got on. She waved at Yuki as the airship took off and left Treno.  
  
Alexandria was a lot more crowded than Tori had expected. There were more people in the housing area, than there was in all of Treno! She walked around for a while, admiring everything. The big difference was that there was sunlight. Treno was always dark for some strange reason.  
  
While she was looking around, she bumped into a little kid, with a big pointy hat.  
  
"Sorry!" she said, "I wasn't looking! Are you ok?"  
  
The kid got up and nodded, "Th-that's the second time that's happened today."  
  
"Are you sure your ok? Lemme see you face" she said, trying to lift his hat off his face.  
  
"N-noooooooo!" the kid yelled, jamming the hat on his head, and running off.  
  
Tori watched the kid run off and muttered, "if all the people are like that here, I'm leaving right now"  
  
She decided to head straight for the theater. The airship had dropped her off with 30 minutes left to pick a seat way in the back, where all the people with the "cheap" tickets sat. She went up to the ticket booth, got her ticket stamped, and went on through.  
  
She sat in her seat for a while, just looking around stupidly. There wasn't anyone she recognized. Go figure. There wasn't anyone she knew in Alexandria.  
  
"Excuse me, miss? Is this seat taken?" someone asked.  
  
Tori jumped. She hadn't expected anyone to talk to her. She turned around to see a tall guy with silver hair. He was wearing something ... different than she last remembered, but who cared?  
  
"What?" he asked giving her an odd look.  
  
"Kujaku!!!" Tori yelled, and gave him a hug.  
  
"Umm ... do I know you?" He stared at the horn on her head and smiled a little, "You're a summoner?"  
  
Tori pulled at a feather on his hair, "Yeah, remember? The name's Tori Kiiroi, stupid! Geez! I thought you forgot about me! You never write! And you KNOW I can't summon, so I'm not really a summoner!"  
  
"Well ... "  
  
"Kuja, you should see Yuki!" she continued, grinning, "He's getting old!"  
  
He pushed Tori away and said, "I'm sorry, but I don't know you. How did you know my name?"  
  
"Huh?"  
  
"Maybe I look like someone else you know?"  
  
Tori's eyes widened, "Nope, never met another guy with silver hair that wears makeup. You're the one who's confused. And ... AGH!! You DID forget!!! You promised you wouldn't!!!"  
  
Kuja shook his head, "I think I would've remembered someone like you. But the point is, I've never seen you in my life, until now."  
  
"Wh-what?!"  
  
"I think I'll go and sit somewhere else" He said, bowing politely, "I hope you find the person you're looking for"  
  
And with that he walked away. Tori sat back down with a murderous look in her eyes. The play was just about to start, but she wasn't going to watch it anyways. A few fireworks were set off and a band was playing some music.  
  
Tori sat there for a while growling curses until someone tapped her on the shoulder. She jumped out of her seat again and yelled, "LEAVE ME ALONE YOU FORGETFUL CREEP!!!!"  
  
A girl looked up at her, shocked, and said, "I'm not THAT forgetful! Geez, Tori!"  
  
The girl was in her late teens (think 17) with blue hair that was braided and tied back with a red ribbon, she had a tail, and she had bright emerald coloured eyes.  
  
"Aiko-chan!!!" Tori screamed and gave her friend a big hug. "sorry, thought it was someone else!"  
  
"Its ok!" Aiko said, "Haven't seen ya inna while!"  
  
The lights started dimming, and the play was about to now that the fireworks were over. Tori and Aiko sat down and started chatting, but Tori shut up when the characters walked onto the stage.  
  
Some fat guy playing King Leo walked onstage and said, "Ladies and Gentlemen! Tonight's performance is a story that takes place long, long ago. Our heroine, Princess Cornelia, is torn from her lover, Marcus. She attempts to flee the castle, but is captured by her father, King Leo. When our story begins, Marcus, having heard of this, crosses swords with the King. And now, Ladies and Gentlemen, Queen Brahne, Your Highness, Princess Garnet, noble ladies and lords, and our rooftop viewers, Tantalus presents "I Want to Be Your Canary!"  
  
Tori watched another fat guy, a guy with something over his eyes, some other guy, and a blonde guy with a tail run onstage and started fighting. She couldn't really focus on it, so she watched the people in the crowd dully. The guy with a tail and the guy that had something over his eyes started fighting close to the crowd for a while, then ran off somewhere.  
  
Tori was about to fall asleep when she saw people being raised onto the stage. One of them was the guy with the tail, some knight, and a girl. She could tell the girl and the knight really weren't meant to be there, but they acted out the rest of the play just fine. When it was all over everyone stood up and clapped.  
  
The kid she had seen earlier and a rat-kid ran past Tori. She decided to get up and leave, dragging Aiko with her when she heard people yelling behind her. A couple of guards were running straight towards her! She panicked and started running as fast as she could onto the stage, following the two kids.  
  
"I HATE guards!!! AGH!!!" She screamed.  
  
"They're not running after you, idiot!!!" Aiko yelled, still being dragged by Tori.  
  
The rat-kid ran away and left behind the kid with the big pointy hat.  
  
"Don't you dare come closer!" the kid yelled and launched a ball of fire at the guards.  
  
The blonde guy with the tail shook his head, "Geez, too many people"  
  
Tori pointed at the knight who was still standing on the stage and screamed. She was still afraid of guards (in case you haven't noticed), even though she was almost an adult now.  
  
The actors started fighting the knight-guy, but with real weapons this time. Tori was in totally panicked, so she charged at the knight and started beating the living crap out of him.  
  
Something was fired out of one of the castle's cannons, that looked like a giant fireball. It was actually a fiery creature called a Bomb (guess how it got its name ) . Tori ignored the creature and kept punching the knight until he finally passed out.  
  
And Tori was left, stuck face-to-face with a Bomb.  
  
BOOM!!!  
  
Tori passed out immediately. Aiko looked down at her friend and muttered, "Baka" The theater ship, the Prima Vista, started to rise in the air to leave. It shook violently as several chains were fired at it to keep it on the ground, but it broke free and flew off into the Evil Forest.  
  
REDG: thank you all for the reviews! Keep 'em coming!


	7. The Evil Forest

REDG: Heya again! Lookies! I updated! lol Enjoy!

* * *

Chapter 7  
  
**Evil Forest  
**  
Tori woke up, and saw that she was in some kind of forest. She got up slowly, feeling sore everywhere.  
  
"'Morning sleepy-head!" the blonde guy said, swishing his tail happily.  
  
Tori groaned, "Where the hell am I?"  
  
The guy ignored her, "Hey! You're kinda cute! My name's Zidane!"  
  
"Good for you." She muttered, "I'm Tori"  
  
"Stop flirting with her and go look for the black mage and the princess!" someone yelled.  
  
"Aww! Shut up, Blank!" Zidane yelled back, and turned to Tori, "Can you still fight?"  
  
"Fight? Sure I can!" She said, cracking her knuckles, "why wouldn't I be able to?"  
  
Zidane gave her an odd look, "You pick a fight with a knight, have a Bomb explode in your face, and you fell off an airship, while it was about to crash. Normal people aren't alright after stuff like that"  
  
"Oh, that? Ain't nuthin' but a few bruises!" she said, "So, who d'ya have to look for?"  
  
"The princess Garnet and some black mage" Zidane answered, already leaving to go look for them, "C'mon! we gotta get goin'!"  
  
"Alright, alright! Don't get you tail inna twist"  
  
"Huh?"  
  
"Nevermind" she muttered, the screamed, "AIKO-CHAN!!! Where is she?!"  
  
"Uh...over there, I think." Zidane said, pointing to a girl lying a few feet away.  
  
Tori ran over to Aiko and started shaking her until she opened her eyes.  
  
"WHAT?! I was finally getting some sleep!"  
  
"Sorry!"  
  
"Yeah, I know you are!" she muttered and then started staring at Zidane.  
  
"What now?"  
  
"Kawaii!" Aiko yelled and hugged Zidane.  
  
Tori rolled her eyes and pried Aiko off Zidane. The monkey-boy looked a little disappointed. They all headed out towards the thick forest to look for the missing princess and mage.  
  
"So, what made you two run on stage?" Zidane asked, "It was kinda weird"  
  
"well, ya see...I have this fear of guards and-"  
  
Tori was cut off when they heard someone screaming. They immediately started running until they came to a clearing where the knight, the mage, and some plant-like creature was. The mage, was lying on the forest floor. Probly just a few bruises.  
  
"What the hell is that thing?!" Zidane yelled.  
  
The knight ignored Zidane and yelled at the plant-thing, "Release the princess!!!!"  
  
"Who says 'release' anymore?" Tori muttered, "freak..."  
  
Aiko pointed at the plant and screamed, "Garnet's stuck in that thing!!!"  
  
They were all running towards the plant to fight, when Zidane stopped. There was this weird light around him that kept getting brighter until his whole body was glowing.  
  
"Lookit all the pretty colours!" Aiko said.  
  
"Wh-what?!" Zidane said looking at his glowing arms"  
  
The knight stared and said slowly, "Is that really trance? I've heard its induced by a surge of emotion..."  
  
Tori blinked, "Trance...? Induced...? Surge...? SPEAK ENGLISH!!!!!!!!"  
  
Aiko knocked the knight's and Zidane's heads together and yelled, "We need to fight that thing before the princess dies, stupid!"  
  
"Right!"  
  
Zidane let loose a blast of energy that looked like fire towards the plant and said, "I think I like this trance thing!"  
  
"Don't just stand there grinning! Fight!!!" the knight yelled and slashed at the plant.  
  
"yeah, yeah yeah...Rusty" Zidane muttered.  
  
The knight glared at him and yelled, "I am captain Steiner of the Pluto Knights and-"  
  
"Knights?! Where?!" Tori yelled back after kicking the plan a few times.  
  
"Nevermind..." Steiner said, "Someone heal the Princess!"  
  
"Righty!" Aiko said.  
  
After that, the fight was pretty much over, and the light around Zidane faded away.  
  
"yeah! Take that!!!" Zidane yelled, slashing at the plant one last time. He turned away with a proud look, as the plant got up, and took off, with the princess still inside it.  
  
"Idiot..." Aiko and Tori muttered.  
  
"PRINCESS!!!!!!!!!" Steiner yelled.  
  
The mage got up slowly and said quietly, "She's gone... ...I was too scared to cast any spells... tha-th-THAT MONSTER'S GONNA EAT HER!!!!!!!"  
  
"Its ok kid, we'll find her!" Tori said.  
  
The mage looked up at her and said, "You're the one who knocked me over in Alexandria!!!"  
  
"Ummm...about that kid..."  
  
"My names not kid!" he said TT "Its Vivi..."  
  
"Oops"  
  
Aiko rolled her eyes, and pointed to herself, "Aiko, that's Zidane, and that..." she pointed at Steiner, "Is a maniac. Can you say that? May-nee-ac!"   
  
"And that" Zidane said pointing to another plant-monster, "Is trouble"  
  
This time, Vivi had gotten caught in the plant-monster, and everyone had to fight it again, but with the help of fire magic from the mage. After they had finally killed it, they pulled Vivi out from inside of it, and stood there catching their breath.  
  
"Phew! ...thanks..." Vivi mumbled.  
  
"You ok?" they all asked (except Steiner, who was still yelling "PRINCESS!!!")  
  
Vivi nodded and said, "...wh-whats that noise?"  
  
They all turned around to see a thick green cloud being sprayed at them, hitting Steiner, Vivi and Tori.

* * *

REDG: R&R! (gives free tiny rootbeer bottles to everyone ) Dear god...it won't let me use the asteriks key!!! 


	8. Head em Up And Move em Out!

REDG: Y'ello all! Well, I dunno what to say right now. Anyways, read and enjoy! 

* * *

Chapter 8  
  
**Head em up and move em out!**  
  
They were all back at the theater ship, and Tori, Vivi, and Steiner were given some gross medicine to help get rid of the plant seeds inside them.  
  
"But its PURPLE!!!!" Tori screamed, "I refuse to drink anything that's freakin PURPLE!"  
  
Blank sighed and thought, "I've been arguing with this damned kid for an hour. She's got a lot of fight in her, even though she was just poisoned."  
  
Tori glared at the bottle of the purple medicine, "I won't drink it!"  
  
"Ok, go ahead and die then" Blank snapped, "If you want those seeds to start sprouting inside of you, that's fine by me"  
  
Tori went all bug-eyed, and quickly gulped down the medicine without another word.  
  
Blank laughed, "Thought so"  
  
"Dammit!!! That tastes like crap!!!" Tori muttered.  
  
Blank just kept laughing and walked out while Tori yelled, "You ENJOY doing this, don't you?! You sicko!!!"  
  
"I-I-I think he's j-just trying to help" Vivi said.  
  
"whatever" Tori muttered, getting up, "I can't stand lying around all day. I'm gonna go walk around"  
  
Meanwhile...  
  
"So what, dammit?!" Zidane yelled furiously, "We can handle it! We can make it out of the forest after we find the princess!"  
  
"And what're ya gonna do about the wounded?!" Baku shouted back.  
  
"Take them with us!"  
  
Baku shook his head, "You gonna carry all of them? We go now, and we're done for! My boys come before the princess"  
  
"But the princess is in trouble!"  
  
Baku sighed. "Stuborn as a mule, alright then we'll duel. Win and you go no strings attatched. Lose and you stay put agreed?" Zidane nodded. "Not here, it's too tight follow me"  
  
Zidane followed Baku to the old store room.  
  
"You ready?" Baku asked.  
  
"To kick your ass? Ready when you are!" Zidane called and ran to slash at Baku.  
  
"That was nuthin!" Baku laughed and charged at Zidane and... ...tripped.  
  
"... ...right..."  
  
Zidane got in a few more lucky hits before Baku called out, "Ok, cut it out! Sheesh!" he got up and shook Zidane's hand, "Good luck"  
  
"Thanks"  
  
He punched Zidane in the gut before walking out of the store room laughing.  
  
"Damn! He always pulls his punches until the end!" Zidane muttered. He left the store room as well as soon as his stomach had stopped aching.  
  
"KAWAII!!!!" someone yelled and tackled Zidane.  
  
"AGH!!! Get off me!!!" Zidane yelled.  
  
Aiko looked up at Zidane and pouted, "Awww...do I HAVE to?"  
  
"Aiko?! You again?!"  
  
"Yup! Wassup?"   
  
Zidane pried Aiko off him and stood up, "I'm looking for Steiner and Vivi. Can you tell me where they are?"  
  
Aiko grinned slyly, "Only if you let me go with you to look for the Princess"  
  
Zidane sighed, "Sure...and I guess your friend can come too"  
  
"Great!!! Follow me!"   
  
She led him to the room where Steiner was locked in. They could hear him muttering about something inside. Zidane opened the door to find Steiner sitting there with a doll (that looked a lot like Garnet) and muttering to himself.  
  
"Geez, I didn't know knights still played with dolls" Aiko muttered, giving Steiner and odd look.  
  
Steiner quickly opened the window behind him and threw the doll out, "What are you babbling about? We must find the princess!!!"  
  
"We were just getting to that..."  
  
"PRINCESS!!!!" Steiner yelled pushed past Zidane and Aiko to run out the door.  
  
"... ... ...ok, so lets go find Vivi" Aiko said.  
  
Zidane followed Aiko again and asked, "Didn't ya think that was kind of...disturbing?"  
  
Aiko shrugged and opened the door to Vivi's room.  
  
And back to Tori...  
  
Tori walked around the outside of the Theatre Ship looking VERY bored. Until someone threw something at her head.  
  
"Hey!!! What the hell?!" Tori screamed. She looked down to see what had been thrown at her and found an ugly doll with long, dark brown hair. Her eyes bugged out again and she yelled, "It's a voodoo doll!!! AGH!"  
  
Cinna ran into Tori and said hurriedly, "Sorry! Have you seen my Garnet doll?"  
  
Tori looked at the doll she was holding and said, "Uh...this one?"  
  
"Yeah! That's it!!!" Cinna said happily and tried to grab for it.  
  
"Hey! Not so fast!" Tori snapped, "You threw this at me, didn't you?!"  
  
"No...I just lost it when..."  
  
"When you threw it at my head?! Eat this!" She yelled and threw it at Cinna, "Serves you right for throwing stuff at people."

* * *

REDG: Ok, I got another chapter done (even if it WAS a little late! ; ) Ah well...that's life...I guess...or whatever...yeah. ANYways! R&R please?


	9. Ice Cavern

REDG: WOW!!! I'M BACK!!!! In case ya didn't read my bio, I wasn't allowed near any electronics cos of some dumb test I failed (it was only a practice test!!!). Well anywho, I wan't harp on that anymore.

Chapter 9  
The Ice Cavern

Zidane, Aiko, Vivi, and Steiner headed deeper into the Evil Forest, leaving Tori behind. They had dodged several monsters to save their strength for whatever was ahead.

"... is this even a good idea?" Aiko asked, " Maybe we shoulda brought more people with us"

"we'll be fine"

They walked in silence to a giant cave, where all the trees where growing weird.

"Th-this is kinda creepy" Vivi whispered.

Steiner came barging in yelling "PRINCESS" at the top of his lungs and scaring the crap out of everyone else. He stopped and pointed to a figure in the middle of the cave, "But this time its true! The princess is right there!"

"Yeah, and theres also a giant plant thingy!!!!" Zidane yelled pointing at a giant plant with a pink flower on it.

"Oh...so, do we fight it?"

(sweatdrop) "No duh..."

Zidane and Steiner charged at the plant and started to hack the thing to pieces. Vivi stayed far enough away to not get hit, while casting a fire spell, and Aiko just stood there.

"C'mon Aiko! Fight!!!" Zidane yelled.

"I don't have a weapon!" She yelled back and looked around frantically for a rock or a stick that she could use as one.

"Oh, for the love of...here!" Zidane tossed her something, "They're spares, so you can keep 'em!"

Aiko looked down and saw that he had thrown a pair of small daggers. She picked them up, grinning, and ran towards the plant to help fight. Vivi casted a few more fire spells before the plant shriveled up and was burnt to a crisp (A/n: crispy! Lol).

That over with, Steiner ran to Garnet to give her the medicine. He kept pouring it down her throat until she bolted up and started coughing.

"Geez, you need to cut back to a pack a day!" Aiko said cheerfully.

"Uhhh...guys?" Blank said nervously, "I think we'd better get outta here!"

There were hundreds of plants , that looked like spiders, crawling out of the hole where the boss plant had died. But that wasn't what Blank was talking about. The forest was being turned to stone! So they ran.

The forest was petrifying quickly, and Blank was still way behind. As one of the plant-spiders was starting to turn to stone, it grabbed Blank and held on. There was no way he was going to make it out.

"BLANK!!!" Zidane yelled.

"Run you moron! RUN!!!" Blank said and threw a piece of paper at him.

Zidane turned and ran, picking up the paper as he went. Everyone else had already reached the exit, and the forest was closing in on him. He picked up the pace and ran flat-out into the clearing where everyone was waiting.

Tori and Aiko were setting up a tent for Garnet to rest in, while Vivi took a nap, and Stiener and Zidane 'decided' to start arguing.

"hey, Rusty? Did ya get the princess out okay?" Zidane asked, opening the piece of paper Blank had given him (turned out to be a map)

Stiener turned beet red and said, "I am Captain Steiner of the-"

"Yeah yeah...whatever. Anyways, the quickest way of getting to Lindblum is through the Ice Cavern and past Dali"

"LINDBLUM?! The princess is NOT going to Lindblum!!! She's going straight back to Alexandria Castle, where she belongs!"

Zidane ignored him, "yup! Off to the Ice Cavern tomorrow! Better rest up, Rusty!"

The next morning, Zidane was up and ready to go. The three girls, Vivi, and Steiner were a different matter all together. Zidane was going around trying to wake up Vivi and the girls, while trying to convince Stiener to go to Lindblum with them.

"I REFUSE to go to Lindblum!!!" Stiener shouted for about the 50th time.

"Aww...give it a rest Stiener! Please!!!" Zidane shouted.

"NEVER!!!"

Zidane gave up and started trying to wake up Vivi again, "C'mon! we gotta get going buddy!"

"J-just 5 more minutes..." Vivi said sleepily.

Tori yawned and sat up, "Whats with a the noise?"

"We're TRYING to leave..." Zidane said, losing patience, "I can't get anyone up"

"oh, that's easy" Tori said and shouted, "You all better get up or we're gonna leave ya here for the monsters!!"

That got everyone up VERY quickly. So, in no time they were up and ready to leave the forest. Outside, the Mist wasn't as thick. They could see the Ice Cavern was a fairly short walk away.

"That wasn't funny" Aiko muttered.

"I thought it was" Tori said and skipped on ahead of everyone else.

Zidane shook his head, "is she 16 or 6 years old?"

After about an hours walk, they reached the Ice Cavern. Inside it were all kinds of plants and flowers that had frozen. Garnet ran in to look at the flowers.

"They're so beautiful!" she said.

"Yeah. Pretty." Zidane said, shivering, "Can we get a move on? I'm freezing here!"

"Which was do we go?" Aiko asked, looking around.

"well, there's a stong wind coming from that way" he said, pointing, "So maybe the exits that way"

They all followed Zidane through the cavern, with Garnet stopping every once in a while to look at the flowers. The winds started to pick up.

"I feel...kinda numb..." Tori said and collapsed. Vivi just kept walking until he tripped and didn't get up. One by one, the group went unconscious and the winds kept blowing snow and ice over them.

Hours later, Zidane slowly got up, "What the hell was that". He heard a noise and stopped to listen, from in there?"

He walked past the group into a large area. There was a mage that looked like Vivi, except he was taller and looked a lot older. Behind him was the exit.

"Who or what the hell are ya?!"

The mage looked down at Zidane, "I am the Black Waltz. And I was sent here to retrieve the princess, so get out of my way."

Zidane pulled out his daggers in response.

"Alright then, have it your way." The mage snapped and rang a strange-looking bell, "Come Sea Lion!!!"

Out of nowhere, a creature made purely out of ice came.

"Shit, it'd be really handy to have Vivi here right about now..." Zidane muttered.

The Black Waltz threw spells at Zidane. He ignored it and kept slashing at the mage with everything he had. He was fighting alone, so he couldn't rely on help from anyone else. He was used to that, but it didn't make the fight any easier. Finally, the mage collapsed.

"S-sea Lion! Kill him for me!" he called, and disappeared.

Zidane had been watching the mage and didn't see the Sea Lions attack, a powerful Ice spell. He saw a familiar light around him after the spell.

"Trance!!! Awright!" Zidane said happily, and sent a wave of fire towards the Sea Lion.

The wind had stopped after the mage had died. He went back to the group, to find everyone already waking up.

"Geez, sleeping on the job" Zidane joked, "The exits just ahead! C'mon!"

They got up and moved out until they were finally outside again.

"The sun feels so nice!" Tori and Aiko cheered.

Zidane pointed, "See that village over there? I think its called Dali. I'm pretty sure I've been there before"

"Sounds like you've been everywhere" Garnet laughed.

"Nah...just a few places. I think we should give ya a different name, if people are out looking for you"

Stiener was about to say something, but Garnet nodded, "Okay, may I borrow that?"

"What, this?" Zidane asked and pulled out one of his daggers.

"What is it called?"

"A dagger...careful! Its sharp!"

Garnet handed back the weapon, "Dagger...from now on, that will me my name"

"Okay, we need to work on your speech next!"

Garnet/Dagger gave him an odd look, "My what?"

"Your speech. Try and say something like Vivi would" he looked at Vivi, "Yeah, how about 'alrighty'?"

"Alright"

"...we'll work on it" Zidane said and started heading towards Dali.

REDG: well, that took forever and a day to write! Honestly! Lol anyways, I'm gonna put up another chapter with Kuja (its kinda short tho). Thank ya for reviewing even though I haven't updated in a month! please R&R! thanks!


	10. Thinking of You

REDG: See, I told ya I'd put up two chapters! anyways, this is just a short chapter with Kuja, Braun and Beatrix. Why? Cos I felt like it. lol enjoy!  


Chapter 10

Thinking of You

Queen Braun, Garnet's mother, sat on the throne Alexandria's castle waiting impatiently.

"Where is he?!" She yelled.

Beatrix, the highest-ranking officer in the Royal Guard, sighed and said, "Not here, you Highness"

"I know that! Go find him!!!" Braun snapped.

Beatrix sighed again, "you sent out orders to find him only an hour ago. It takes time."

"Indeed it does" Kuja said and walked up to Braun, "You called?"

"Where is Princess Garnet? She got away with the pendant!!!" Braun fumed.

He held back the urge to say 'how should I know?! Go get it yourself, you sad excuse for a Queen'. Instead, he said patiently, "I sent out the Black Waltzes not too long ago. Three should be enough to find the princess and bring her back"

Braun muttered something and then said out loud, "Alright, you may leave now"

Kuja walked out as quickly as he could. Braun got on his nerves, badly.

"Wait." Beatrix called, and ran to catch up with him, "Who was that girl you were talking to? The one in the audience during the play."

"Who I talk to is none of your business, is it?" Kuja snapped.

"I was just asking. I hope you don't personally know her, because she was one of the people who ran off with the princess. When they're all caught, she'll be executed as well."

For some reason, that struck a nerve with Kuja.

"Do you know her?"

"No. She's...a summoner like the princess. I'd advise keeping both of them alive when they're found."

"Alright, I'll inform the Queen immediately" Beatrix said and walked away.

Kuja stood there for a while thinking angrily, "Why did that bother me? I don't even know her"

He thought about that for a while, and decided it was because she was a summoner. He could use her Edelions later.

REDG: Okay, I guess that kinda sucked. (shrugs) well, In the next chapter, I'll be adding a new character: X. Later all! Please R&R!


	11. Alexandrian Rampant

REDG:Well, another chapter, another character! You'll get to meet X in this chapter! On another note, it's a wonder that I'm even able to write!!! I have my idiot 17-year old brother, Zeth visiting. Right now, he's trying to gimme a hickey. Ewww...someone help me! NE ways, (pushes Zeth away) enjoy the chapter!

* * *

Chapter 11

**Alexandrian Rampant**

The group slowly made their way into Dali, enjoying the sunlight and the fresh air again. The town was actually really small, with just a few homes, an inn, a shop, and plenty of farmland. Several kids were outside playing.

"maybe we should get a room at the inn?" Aiko suggested, "Then we can look around here"

"Sure thing!" Zidane agreed, "But remember, this is a country in. There's no such thing as separate rooms."

"S'ok" Tori said, shrugging, "We'll habe Rusty beat the crap outta you if you try anything"

"Me? Try what?" Zidane asked with an innocent look on his face, and walked into the inn. The guy at the counter was fast asleep and was snoring a little. Zidane poked him.

"Zzz...? Oh, hello" the guy said, waking up. He saw Dagger and stared.

Zidane poked the guy again, "Hey, I know she's cute and all, but you don't hafta stare like that!"

"Hmm? What?" The guy said sleepily, "Anyways, the room's over there. Go ahead and make yourself at home" and he went back to sleep.

They all walked into a large room with several beds and started picking which one they wanted.

"well, Gar- I mean, Dagger and I'll take this one!" Zidane said, pointing at one. He got a smack on the head for that.

"I want this one then!" Tori said and flopped on the bed

"I wanted that one..." Steiner muttered, looking disappointed.

"Too bad!" she laughed.

"Why you insolent little-!!"

Dagger and Zidane watched Tori, Vivi, and Aiko chase eachother around for a while.

"Hey Dagger? How come you wanted to leave the castle?" Zidane asked, still watching Steiner.

"Hm? Oh, I suspected mother was up to something. There had also been a strange man wandering around the castle."

Zidane laughed, "Oooo! Dagger-chan's gotta stalker!"

"I DO NOT!!!!" she said, "Anyways, I heard about the Prima Vista coming, and I decided to sneak on the ship and leave. Kind of ironic, really"

"yeah, we came to kidnap you, and you WANTED to be kidnapped. Ya don't have that happen every day."

Aiko walked over to Zidane and glomped his arm, "Can ya show me around Dali, Zidy-kun?"

"Uhh...I guess..." he mumbled, and quickly glanced at Dagger.

She smiled, "Go on ahead...Zidy-kun"

They walked out of the inn and Zidane asked, "Hey Aiko? D'ya think she's might've gotten a little jealous?"

"I don't think she's really like that, y'know?" Aiko said, "Anyways how about we go look over there-"

"MOVE!!!" A guy yelled from behind them. They moved out of the way in time to see a giant snake just miss them. A guy with platinum hair was chasing after it with a sword.

Aiko let go of Zidane's arm, "Lets got help him!" and started running.

"My arms still numb" he muttered ;;and followed her.

Once they had caught up with the guy and the monster, they all started slashing. It didn't take very long before it died.

"Thank you for warning us" Aiko said to the platinum-haired guy. She saw he had bright green eyes, and was wearing a black shirt with baggy jeans.

"I-it was nothing..." The guy said, blushing a little.

"So, whats your name? I'm Aiko!" she said, sticking out her arm to shake hands."You didn't get hurt in the fight, did you?"

"No, I'm fine. You can call me X, Miss Aiko" He said, taking her hand and kissed it.

"U-uhhh...you can just call me Aiko. Formalities are weird" Aiko stuttered.

"Ahem" Zidane coughed.

"Oh!" Aiko laughed and skipped over to Zidane, "This is Zidane. We're traveling with a bunch of people to Lindblum because he kidnapped the prin-"

"Shhhhh!!!!" he whispered, "Do you REALLY want us to be arrested?! He might be working for the Queen!"

Aiko looked over at X, who was still blushing a little, "...I don't think he is"

X smiled, "I'm just traveling around. I don't work for anyone right now"

"Really? Hey, I know! I'll go introduce you to everyone! Then you can travel with us!" she said, hugging Zidane's arm again, "Right Zidane?"

"Uhh...I guess so." He replied and looked at X. He was giving the two of them an odd look, so Zidane pried her off his arm, "Why don't you show X off to everyone? I'm gonna look for Dagger."

Zidane walked down the road a little further, "Geez, he' got it bad for her" --;;

"Wh-what?" someone asked. Zidane looked down and saw Vivi sitting. He sat down next to him.

"Hey! Whatcha doing? Anything wrong?"

Vivi sighed, 'Nothing"

Zidane smiled and flicked his tail mischievously, "It's a girl, isn't it? Is she cute?"

"N-no! I-its nothing like that!" Vivi stuttered.

_Kweh!_

Vivi looked up, "Wh-what was that?"

"That's the sound a chocobo makes." Zidane said, thinking, "They look like giant yellow bird. People use them as transportation"

"oh"

Zidane got up again, "Well, I gotta go find Dagger. Cheer up, ok?" and he walked away.

Eventually, he went into the shop and spotted Dagger. He went up and stood right next to her to see how long it took.

"Zidane!!!" Dagger gasped, "How long have you been standing there?"

"Not long. So, what're ya doing?"

"I'm trying to learn to speak normally by conversing with the local people of this village"

Zidane blinked and said, "Try and say, 'I'm learnin' to talk right from the people here'"

"learnin'? I don't think so, Zidy-kun."

He laughed, "Why not? It'd be funny to see ya saying that! And why does everyone call me Zidy-kun now?"

Garnet smiled, "Because its funny? Anyways, I think we should go find Vivi. I don't think he should be alone out there"

"Aww...he can take care of himself" Zidane whined, but walked outside anyways. They walked towards the windmill that he had been sitting next to, but he wasn't there."Weird. he was sitting right here"

"Shhh!" Dagger whispered, "I thought I heard someone crying..."

"_Sniff...Dagger? ...Zidane?"_

"Vivi!" Zidane yelled, "Where are ya? Are you ok?!"

"_Some other kids dragged me down here and asked why I wasn't with the others."_

"...Others?" Dagger thought out loud.

"Just stay put, okay? We're gonna get you outta there!" Zidane ordered and ran off.

Dagger followed him, "Why are we running? Shouldn't we find the others?"

"No time for that" Zidane said, looking around, "Help me look for a man-whole or something"

Dagger blinked and said, "How about searching the windmill. His voice was coming from that general area"

"Oh...right...that's what I was gonna do" Zidane muttered and walked into the old whindmill, "Aha! A man-whole, right there"

"Told you" Dagger said smugly.

They climbed down the ladder and walked through an underground storage area filled with boxes and barrels and that kinda stuff, following the voiced up ahead. Zidane's thief instincts kicked in every once in a while, and he had to stop for a second to see if there was anything valuable in the barrels and boxes.

"I hardly think its appropriate to go looking through those boxes while we're trying to save our friend!" Dagger whisped angrily.

"Awww! C'mon! I was just trying to make a bit of a profit outta all this!"

"Shhh!" Dagger hissed suddenly, "There's Vivi, up there!"

Zidane's eyes widened and he was getting ready to run after him, until Dagger pulled him by the ear away from Vivi and the guards around him. He gave her a confused look.

"I don't want to cause trouble just yet" she said.

"Fine" Zidane muttered, "but if they hurt him, I swear I'll-"

"Okay" Dagger said, sighing.

"...Hey, you okay?"

"Hm? Oh, its just some of these barrels have the Alexandrian seal on them. Is this in any way connected to Alexandria somehow?"

Zidane shrugged, "I dunno. C'mon, lets go find Vivi"

They wandered through a few more rooms until they heard Vivi's voice again. There was a box in the corner that was moving, and something inside it was screaming, "Lemmee outta here!!!!"

"The box talks?!" Zidane said with fake shock. Dagger just gave him an un-amused look, so he went to work at prying the box apart. Once he'd finally gotten Vivi out, he asked, "What the hell where you doing in there?!"

"I-I dunno! This kid just suddenly grabbed my and shut me inside the box!" Vivi stuttered.

"oh my..." Dagger whispered, 'its like a factory...they all sort of look like..."

Vivi hung his head, "Do you really think they look like me?"

Dagger blinked and then shook her head apologetically, "Ummm...n-no! that's not what I meant!"

"Yeah!" Zidane agreed, "They're just dolls or something, Vivi."

They all stopped when they heard someone walking in. To avoid getting caught, they all jumped into a barrel and hid.

Steiner strolled through the crops in Dali, his rusted armour clinking, "If that old man was right, the Cargo ship should be right here!"

Tori sighed, "No, it should be right THERE" and pointed.

Behind them, Aiko and X were chatting away, and every once in a while paused awkwardly. Then there was a nervous laugh and they went back to chatting.

"I think they'd make a cute couple" Tori cheered.

Steiner snorted, 'And I think that its stupid. They just met today and they're already hanging all over eachother!"

"And THAT is why you don't have a girlfriend," Tori muttered, "And besides, they're not hanging all over eachother! They're just bloody well talking!"

"Hmmph" Steiner said as a reply. As they got close to the ship, Steiner started inspecting the barrels, 'Aha! This ship is going to Alexandria! Hurrah! We can bring the princess back!"

"Hurrah?" X asked, "who says that anymore?"

Aiko rolled her eyes, "That rust-bucket does"

Steiner's face turned beet red, "I am NOT a rust bucket! I am...hey, did that barrel just move?" He watched it closely, and saw it move again, so her pulled out his sword and poked it.

"Owwww!!!!" someone yelled from inside the barrel. It tipped over and out came Zidane, Vivi and Dagger.

Steiner started on his rampage again, and started jumping up and down screaming, "WHAT DID YOU DO TO THE PRINCESS?!"

They all stopped and turned around when they heard a laugh behind them. There was another mage like the one Zidane had fought in the Ice Cavern, but this one looked a little different.

"Not again!" Zidane said and quickly covered his mouth.

"What d'ya mean by that?" Aiko asked, getting a little nervous.

"I fought something like him in the Ice Cavern when you all were alseep, I think they were called "Black Waltzes" or something like that" Zidane explained.

The Black Waltz laughed, "Don't mistake me for that fool! I'm Black Waltz No. 2! My magic far supasses that of Black Waltz No.1. Now, princess, come with me back to Alexandria"

"No!" She yelled and cast a Slow spell on him.

Tori ran up and started pounding and kicking the crap out of the Black Waltz, while Zidane and Aiko slashed at him with their twin blades. Steiner and X seemed to be having a race to see which one could get to the Black Waltz first.

"Agh! Princess...why?" The Black Waltz stuttered and sent out one last, powerful lightning spell before he died.

* * *

REDG: Phew! That was a LONG chapter! I kinda forgot exactly what happened in Dali, and I was too lazy to go look it up somewhere, so I just kinda wrote what I remembered, and made up the rest! Okay, I'm just babbling now. Thanks to everyone who reviewed so far! Maybe I'll start doing review responses? Anywho, ideas, comments, blah blah blah are welcome! Anyways, Zeth is bugging me again, so I hafta go and pester him. Muahahah! reviews are much appreciated!

Later!

_XXxLove_!


	12. Not ANOTHER One?

REDG: Yay! I'm back again, with another chapter of course! here's yous go!BTW, X's name is pronounced "Kai", M'kay?

* * *

Chapter 12

**Not ANOTHER one?!**

"Phew! That was close!" Aiko gasped.

X gave her a worried look, "Are you ok?"

She nodded back at him.

"Uhh...hate to interrupt, but the airship is bloody well getting away!!!" Zidane shouted, pointing at the cargo ship that was getting ready to take off. Everyone's eyes bugged out as they watched it for a second, and then ran like hell to catch up to it. There was a rope ladder at the back of the ship, and if they could just grab a hold of if...

Steiner was one of the frst people to make it (for a guy in heavy armour, he could run FAST), followed by Vivi, Aiko, X, and Tori. They all walked to the front of the ship to rest up a little.

"Yeah!!!" Tori exclaimed, punching the air, "We made it!!!"

Vivi looked over the ship's guard rail and stuttered, "don't feel so good..."

"Ummm...maybe you should stay below-deck. I saw a bunch of mages there! You wanna go talk to them?" Tori asked, and started to lead Vivi inside.

"AGHGHGHGH!!!!" Aiko screamed, "We left Dagger and Zidy-kun behind!!!"

"WHAT?!"

Aiko started frantically looking around to ship, expecting to find Zidane and Dagger hiding somewhere, "I didn't actually see them get on!!! Maybe there're still in Dali!!!"

Steiner, instead of helping, started banging his head on the floor, muttering, "I'll lose my job, lose my home, probly be hanged..."

Zidane and Garnet HAD made it on the airship, but just barely. They were now standing on the deck, watching everyone run around trying to find them.

"This is fun!"

Garnet glared at Zidane, "No, and its not funny either. They think we're still in Dali right now! We should let them know we're here"

"Awww...your no fun" Zidane pouted, "Just lemme scare Steiner a bit" and before Garnet could answer, he slowly started to creep up behind Steiner, who was STILL slamming his head on the floor. "Boo"

"AGHGHGHGHGHGHGHGHGHHGHGHGHGHGHHGHGHGHGH!!!!"

Zidane shrugged and walked off towards the cockpit to mess with the Black Mages in there.

Tori and Vivi watched Steiner run around crazily. "...ANYways...about those Black Mages! The's go talk to them!" Tori said and walked with Vivi below-deck.

"O-okay...but I d-d-don't think..."

"Aww! C'mon! You'll meet new people!" Tori exclaimed and walked up to a random mage, "Hey! So...what's you name? I'm Tori Kiiroi!"

"... ... ... ..." he didn't say anything. Just gave her a blank stare. Vivi looked up at them, not looking very impressed.

"eheheh...that happens sometimes" Tori muttered, "Not all people like talking!"

"Oh"

"Hmmm...why don't you try talking to him?" Tori asked, pointing to another mage, "He looks really friendly!"

"They all look the same" Vivi mumbled.

"Your just shy!" Tori giggled, 'Look, I'll go talk to him, okay?"

She skipped over to the other Black Mage and tried to talk to him, but got no answer, once again. She plopped down on the floor, "Man, this sucks. What am I? Freakin invisible?!"

"...I-I-I here something!" Vivi stuttered and started to go above-deck again.

Tori got up and followed him, "Hey! Wait up kiddo!"

Back in the cockpit, Zidane and Steiner were arguing again.

"What in BLAZES are you doing?!" Steiner fumed.

"What does it look like I'm doing?" Zidane snapped, "I'm bloody well turning this ship around, aren't I? We're going to Lindblum"

"The HELL we are!"Steiner yelled, and stopped when he saw Vivi on the deck, running straight towards what looked like another Black Waltz. Several of the Mages on the ship were following him and casting spells at the Black Waltz. They were easily thrown over the ships railings by a powerful spell from the Waltz.

"Princess! I must help Master Vivi!" Steiner said and ran out onto the deck.

Zidane followed, and turned around to yell back at Dagger, "Keep steering!" and then kept running towards the fight.

* * *

REDG: Okay, I'm gonna stop here. I know it's a short chapter. Sorry! Plus, I think it really sucks (be honest. It DOES! Lol). Well, please R&R! love! 


	13. Last Waltz

REDG : Alright! New chappie! Review responses first, cos I FELT LIKE IT!!! XD

**LadyYunalesca88: **Thanks. I feel ...happy now lol!

**RefugeofSouls: ** Cute Jackass huh? XD Lol never looked at it like that!

**Aiko-Sama:** Virus??!?!?!?!? No! Oh wait, ya updated, so I guess ya got rid of it, eh? Lol I'll shut up now!

* * *

Chapter 13  
Last Waltz  


"Why did you DO that?!" Vivi screamed at the Black Waltz, as Steiner and Zidane ran out on deck to help. "Weren't they your friends?!"

It shrugged, "Friends? They were nothing but dolls. Why should I care about them?"

Something around Vivi flashed, and then a bright light surrounded him. "Trance!" Zidane yelled, and ran into battle. Vivi was shooting streams of fire towards the Waltz, not giving Zidane or Steiner a chance to get in an attack very much. He was holding up on his own really well anyways.

"Vivi! You gonna do all the work here, or you gonna let us attack every now and then?" Zidane called, and dodged a lightning bolt the Waltz and sent at him. Vivi ignored him and kept sending fire at the Waltz. Finally, the Waltz gave them a look that said, "Screw this" and flew off.

Zidane and Steiner stopped to catch their breath while Vivi leaned over the guard rail to sulk. Steiner was about to walk over and cheer him up a little, but Zidane shook his head and whispered, "He needs a little alone time right now". They both went back to the cockpit to check on Dagger.

"HOLY SHIT!!!" Tori yelped, "Vivi just beat the crap outta that guy!!!"

"Duh" Aiko muttered, "Hey, where did that thing go anyways?"

Zidane shrugged, "Over the edge of the guard rail I guess." And then he turned to Dagger to say, "Hey!! Your doing a great job flying this!"

"You think so?" Dagger asked, blushing a little.

"PRINCESS!!!!" Steiner yelled, "It's the Black Waltz! He's chasing after us!"

Sure enough, outside, the Black Waltz was on a much smaller airship and was following very closely behind them.

"Do those things ever give up?" X asked.

"Obviously not!" Aiko said calmly, but was really holding back the urge to scream bloody murder, "We need to turn around or something!"

Zidane shook his head, "No can do. It'll be a bict tricky, but we'll hafta try and lose him at the Gates"

Dagger gave him a shocked look, "But...the Gates are closing!"

Zidane coughed, "That's...erm...the tricky part"

"O-okay..." Dagger said doubtfully and set the speed on the cargo ship to the max. AS they got closer to the Gate, they could see it was closing. Slowly, but enough that it might cause a problem.

"Did I ever tell you I'm afraid of closed spaces?" Zidane joked. He was rewarded with a punch from Tori.

The cargo ship was nearly through the gate, but it was closing in on them fast. The sides of the ship started scraping against the gate and...

...they made it out. Of course. Everyone let out a cheer. Or in Tori's case, started doing a weird victory dance.

"Hey look! There's Lindblum!" Aiko said, pointing outside. There was a huge castle, surrounded my thousands of homes, shops, and everything in between. But the sky was the most amazing part; airships of all sizes and shapes were flying slowly in and out of the city.

They made their way to the Castle and docked at the Falcons Gate. They walked off the cargo ship, still looking around with amazement. Two guards of the Lindblum Royal guard walked over to greet them and Tori's eyes widened with fear.

"AGH!!! Get them the HELL away from me!!!" she screamed.

Zidane sighed, "Not again...TORI!!! Cut it out!!!"

"I can't help it" She mumbled, now hiding behind Steiner.

Dagger went up to the guards and said, "I wish to see Regent Cid"

One of the guards laughed and nudged the others in the ribs, "hey, she thinks she's a princess or something."

"Yeah! Imagine that! Princess Garnet traveling on a cargo ship with a bunch of hobo's!" the other guard joked. Everyone gave him a death-glare.

"Oh?" Dagger asked innocently, and pulled out a necklace with a jewel on it, "I am Princess Garnet Til Alexandros."

"M-m-m-m-my apologies, ma'am!" the first guard stuttered, "I'll go get Artania"

"I don't look like a hobo!!!" Tori yelled as they ran off, "... ...do I?"

"No," X said grinning, "They were talking about Steiner"

"Why you..." Steiner started, his face going red.

A man in about his 40's walked into the docking area and said, "The Regent will see you now"

Dagger whirled around, and seeing who it was ran to him and gave him a hug yelling, "Uncle Artania!!!"

She let go, and Artania said, "Its wonderful to see you princess, but why are you here?"

"It's a LONG story" she laughed.

After being introduced to everyone, Artania walked them over to the elevator and explained, "Lindblum Castle has three levels, all connected by this lift. From the Base Level, which lies below the Mist, you can take a trolley to the harbor and the back gate. Ships hardly arrive at the harbor anymore since travel by air has become so popular. The Mist poses great danger, so we've sealed off everything. Just above the Base Level is the Mid Level. You can ride the air cab from the Mid Level to go to town. The Upper Level contains the royal chamber and conference room. Access to that level is restricted, because the regent himself resides there."

(A/n: gawd, that took FOREVER to write! XD)

Tori blinked, "Uhhh...can you repeat that? I wasn't listening. Everyone gave her a 'your hopless' look, so she decided to just shut up.

They walked into the throne room, but no one was there. They looked around, confused.

Finally, Dagger asked, "Is my uncle not here? Maybe he's out?"

"I'm right here Garnet!" She heard Cid say. She stopped and looked around frantically.

Steiner pointed at the throne and yelled furiously, "There's an oglop! What kind of insult is this?! Get that filthy bug off the throne and call the Regent here immediately!"

Artania sighed patiently, "That 'filthy bug' is the Regent"

Garnet squinted at the Oglop on the throne, "That mustache...it IS Cid! Uncle, I came here because..."

Cid cut her off by saying, "There'll be time for that later! You must be tired and hungry for your journey. We will have lunch served"

Nobody argued with that.

* * *

REDG: Okies! I'm done for now! The next chapter will mostly be about everyone exploring the city and enjoying their free-time! Later! 


	14. Don't You 'Gwock' At Me!

REDG: heya all! Sorry this's late again, but a certain SOMEONE deleted the original chapter 14, so I had to go back and type it again. Well, at least I think this one is better, so I won't complain too much!  
enjoy!

* * *

Chapter 14

**Don't You 'Gwock' at Me!**

(Zidane)

Zidane left the castle after eating lunch with everyone and started walking around. Everyone else had left as well to explore the city, so he was on his own for a little bit. He walked past a pub, and stopped when his stomach started growling.

"Damn...I can't stand that food at the castle. How can anyone get full off that?" he muttered and looked at the sign on the outside of the pub, "hmmm...the special soup don't sound bad," and walked in. there was a person sitting at the bar that he thought he recognized, but shook it off.

"Yo, I'll have the damned special," he called to the guy behind the bar.

The guy looked up, furious, "Who said that?!" and saw Zidane and relaxed, "Oh, its just you. Your soup'll be ready inna minute or so"

Zidane watched the guy walk off, and nearly bumped into one of the waitresses.

"Hey! Move it!" she snapped and walked around him.

He flicked and eye over her figure and muttered, "hmmm...not bad" and walked over to her, "hey! How 'bout you and me go on a cruise on an airship sometime?"

The waitress smiled, "Really? An airship?"

"Hey, monkey-boy!" The person sitting at the bar yelled, "Your bothering the other customers!"

Zidane glared at her, "what the hell, rat-face?!"

She took a sip of her drink calmly, "Rat-face, huh? After I finish my drink, I'm gonna kick your ass". Zidane started edging towards the door, "Relax Zidane, I was only joking. Siddown"

"Oh...okay...ummm...:"

"You forgot my name, huh?" she asked, grinning.

"No! Your Suzzanne, right?"

She shook her head.

"Chrystal?"

"no"

Zidane thought for a minute and asked, "Oh! I know! Ratchel!"

"You little-"

"hey! Joking, Freya! You know I'd never forget a pretty girl's name!" he said defensively. "so, how've you been? Have ya found anything out about your old boyfriend?"

"Nothing. Anyways, I came here for the Festival of the Hunt, not to look for Fratley. What about you?"

"I guess you can say I came here on business, so I probly won't be doing the Festival of the Hunt" Zidane said, shrugging, and taking a sip out of Freya's glass"

"Lazy bum. Hey! That's MY beer, monkey-boy!"

(Dagger & Cid)

Dagger and Cid were still in the castle after everyone had left. Dagger was pacing while she talked, and Cid sat and listened.

"So, how is the Queen?" Cid asked, "is she still as vibrant as ever?'

Dagger stopped pacing and thought for a little before saying, "yes, but since father died, she's been acting very strangely and we haven't spoken much. Plus there is a suspicious man wandering around the castle. I don't know what's going on anymore...I'm afraid that she might be planning something, but no one at the castle believed me when I told them."

"I'm glad you came here for help" Cid said gratefully.

"At this point, I think you're the only person mother will listen to." Dagger said sadly, and sat down on the floor, "When I heard that Lindblum's theatre ship was coming to Alexandria, I decided to sneak aboard. I never expected them to kidnap me"

Cid laughed, "I was the one who ordered Tantalus to bring you here." He laughed again at the shocked expression on Dagger's face, "I've known about the disturbances in Alexandria for some time, but had we acted directly, it would've started a war. So I asked Baku to help"

"there's another thing...At Dali, we saw a lot of Black Mages who were being created under Alexandria's supervision. I'm afraid mother might use them for war"

Cid shrugged and got up to leave, "She won't make a move as long as we have our airship fleet. GWOCK!!!!"

Dagger got up to follow him, "What was that noise?"

"U-u-u-u-h...some kind of Oglop...? Anyways, I want to show you something" Cid said, changing the subject.

"Are you sure that wasn't you?"

"POSITIVE! Now, follow me!" Cid said hurriedly. They walked together down a few halls until they came to a small docking area.

"This is Dock No. 1" Cid said proudly, "Where we conduct our research, but there aren't any airships. Lonely, isn't it? WE had a new model in here about 5 months ago. It didn't need mist to fly."

"The person that attacked you...that turned you into an oglop...did they run off with it?" Dagger asked.

"No...I met a lovely lady at the pub, and when Hilda, my wife, found out about our...little affair...she turned me into an oglop and took the new airship, the Hilde Garde. Ironic, huh? I've been trying to work on a Hilde Garde 2, but my mind isn't the same as an oglop"

Dagger nodded sympathetically, and they stood there for a while and stared at the empty dock.

"Gwockkk!"

"Uncle...are you SURE that wasn't you?"

REDG: Well, that's done with! The next chapter'll be like this, except with Tori, a friend of hers (wonder who that could be? ), and Aiko and X! whoo! Please R&R loves!  
Note: OMG!!! I just noticed that you can't make smiley faces anymore! wussup with that?!


	15. Date!

REDG: Just another fun chapter! X and Aiko go on a D-A-T-E and Tori meets up with someone. My question is, how come Tori is such a ditz in this chapter?

* * *

**  
Chapter 15  
**

Date! 

X and Aiko walked out of the castle with everyone else after lunch.

Zidane winked at Vivi, and Tori saying, "Well, I gotta go run a few errands, so I'll be off!"

Vivi watched him run off and stuttered, "Y-yeah! M-me to!" and wandered off in a different direction.

"Well, I'M gonna get my hair done!" Tori announced proudly and ran off, "See you two later!"

X and Aiko just stood there for a second, wondering what to do next. Finally, X mumbled, "Ummm...so you wanna walk around for a while?"

"S-sure!" she said nervously and pointed, "Uhhh...so how about we go that way?"

He nodded and they started walking down the street, every once in a while trying to make conversation that always ended in an awkward silence.

"Oh look!" Aiko said pointing at a shop window and ran up to it to look at all the clothes inside. X followed her to look as well, but not at anything in the shop. Aiko turned and looked up at him, "...Is there something on my face?"

"N-n-no!" X exclaimed, quickly looking away.

She went back to looking at a blue shirt that caught her eye, blushing a little. X looked away, embarrassed.

"Did you want to look at something else?" Aiko asked.

"No! I'm fine!"

"Really?"

"Really"

Awkward silence.

"So...ummm..." X said, trying to figure out what to say and then noticed Aiko was staring at something behind him. He turned and saw a guy selling brightly-coloured balloons, "Oh, did you want one?"

"Hm? Oh, no! That's alright!" she said quickly and looked back into the shop window.

"aww...c'mon. Which colour?" he asked.

She giggled, "green I guess"

"Green it is then!" he said, and ran to catch up with the balloon-guy. He ran back a minute later with a bright green balloon, and handed it to Aiko. She smiled cheerfully and then frowned.

"I don't have anything to give you" she said.

X shrugged, "Its just a balloon, so I don't mind"

She smiled again and said excitedly, "Hey! I know!" and reach back to pull the dark red ribbon out of her hair and gave it to X, "Its for good luck!"

"Wow, thanks" he said, grinning and tried to put his hair in a ponytail with the ribbon.

Aiko laughed, "Here, you want some help?". He nodded and she reached up to take it out of his hair.

He smiled at her and said quietly, "Hey Aiko?"

"Yeah?"

"You know...you're smile is bea-"

And got cut off by Vivi, who seemed to run up to them out of nowhere, "Guess what! I got a free kupo nut from this lady at a store!"

Tori stopped running and slowed down to a walk once Aiko and X were out of her sight and started looking for a hair salon. She walked into a random store and yelled, "Do you cut hair here?!"

Everyone inside stopped whatever it was they were doing and stared at her. After a while, a guy at the counter said slowly, "No...we sell food here. It says so on the sign outside"

"Really?" Tori asked and ran outside to check the sign. She ran back in and said happily, "It DOES! That's neat!"

A kid that was standing in the check-out line with his mum, asked quietly, "Mum, is she retarded?"

"Shhh, honey! The term is 'Mentally Challenged'" the lady said to him quietly, and looked at Tori with a forced smile.

Tori pretended she didn't hear that and skipped outside, reading off the signs that she passed, "Clothes, food, more food, music, hair salon, some more clothes...hey wait! ...H-A-I-R S-A-L-O-N! That's gotta be it!"

She walked right in and went to a counter at the front of the shop. A girl looked up at her, "Yes? Can I help you?"

"Do you cut hair here?" Tori asked excitedly.

The girl rolled her eyes and pointed at another girl who was cutting some other person's hair, "Yeah" and then she looked up at the horn on Tori's head, "You know that hair ornaments like that are SO outta fashion, right?"

"ITS NOT A HAIR ORNAMENT!" Tori yelled. She was about to say more, but cut off when she heard someone laughing. She spun around furiously to find a certain silver-haired guy getting a manicure, nail polish and all.

He grinned, "Oh, its you again! Didn't think I'd actually run into you"

"KUJAKU!" Tori fumed, "I'm still mad at you!"

"Because I supposedly forgot you? I remember your name at least," he said, still grinning, "Tori Kiiroi, right?"

"You DID forget me, dumbass! Not this 'supposedly' crap! You only remember my name cos I had to remind you a few days ago! How could you forget me? We bloody well grew up together!"

The lady at the counter walked up to Tori and said, "Could you two please go outside and deal with this? Your scaring the costumers"

"Yeah" Tori said "Why don't we go outside, huh?"

"Aw, but my nails aren't don yet" Kuja said with a fake pout.

Tori leaned in until her nose was an inch away from his and repeated through gritted teeth, "_Why don't we go outside_?"

"Whatever you wish!" he said pleasantly and got up to walk outside, "Lovely day, isn't it?"

"Don't you go changing the subject!" Tori snarled, "And anyways, your telling me that you just flat out can't remember your childhood?"

He shrugged, "I guess so. I can't remember any of it. Not just you, but all of it. There's just a blank"

Tori stared dumbly.

Grrrrrowwwl...

She looked down at her stomach angrily and said, "Hey! Can't ya see I'm having a sad moment here! Food later!"

Kuja was trying hard to not laugh and Tori gave him a look that said, 'your NOT helping'.

"Do you want to get something to eat?" he asked.

She thought for a minute and said, "Sure. How about ice cream?"

"Alright" he said, relieved she wasn't mad at him anymore.

"Oh, and by the way, bribery won't get you anywhere" Tori said slyly, "I'm still mad at you"

* * *

REDG: man, poor guys. They can't catch a break. lol! Anywho, thanks for the reviews people! keep em comming! love! 


	16. Festival of the Hunt

REDG: I'm back again!!! Lol anyways, RefugeofSouls, Kuja didn't remember yet. He just remembered Tori's name from when he met up with her at the play in Alexandria. Oh, and Lady Yunalesca88, later on I'll explain why he doesn't remember. Much later.

And thanks Yukina-chan for the idea!

Well, on with the fic!

* * *

Chapter 16

**Festival of the Hunt**

"You leaving already?" Tori asked, "That sucks! I only got to see ya for like 30 minutes!"

Kuja pointed up at a silver dragon that was hovering high up in the sky, and said, "I'm being called back to Alexandria."

"Aww! But I wanted you to meet up with my friends! Like Dagger, and Aiko, and Zidane and...hey, whats with that look?"

He was smiling thoughtfully. He said after a while, "Zidane? I already know him, but I highly doubt he even knows who I am."

"Huh?" Tori asked, confused, "How's that work out?"

"Nevermind." He said, turning to leave, "I'll see you again"

"Promise?" Tori called.

He smiled and nodded, "Promise. I'll ... ...show you around Alexandria" and turned to leave.

Tori, satisfied with that, headed back towards Lindblum Castle to find someone else to talk to now; probably Zidane.

Lindblum Castle

Zidane walked into the castle, feeling sort of depressed. He had gone into the Theatre District to check on the Tantalus hideout, but no one was there. He had made his way back to the castle, signed Vivi and himself up for the Festival of the Hunt, and went looking for something to do. As he walked in, he heard someone singing quietly, and decided to find out where it was coming from.

He walked up to a guard at the elevator with a smirk on his face, "I wanna go up to the top level"

The guard looked down at him and sneered, "You are not permitted to."

"_Damn_" he thought, and turned to leave, until got an idea, "Hey, did you just see that?"

The guard blinked and looked around the room and shook his head.

"There was a suspicious- looking person that ran into the guest bedrooms" Zidane lied, pointing to a set of stairs. The guard pushed past Zidane and ran up the stairs, while Zidane hopped on the elevator.

He got off the elevator and found it led to the top of some tower, and the singing was louder now. He ran up a set of stairs, scattering a bunch of doves and saw Dagger. She stopped singing, looking embarrassed.

"Hey, you didn't hafta stop! I thought it was nice" Zidane said.

She blushed a little.

Zidane grinned, 'So, when are we going on that airship cruise?"

Dagger blinked, and then said angrily, "I think you asked the wrong person!"

"_Shit! That's right, I asked the girl in the bar!"_ he thought, and said hurriedly, "Hehe...no! Its not like that! Hey, if I win the Festival of the Hunt, will you go out with me?"

Dagger sighed, "Alright I guess...but no more flirting with other girls so much"

Next Day- the Festival of the Hunt

The next morning, everyone was gathered in one of the castle's rooms, waiting for the Festival of the Hunt to Start.

Zidane grinned, "Alright, lets beat the crap outta some monsters"

A guy handed everyone a piece of paper and said, "These are the rules"

Vivi looked at his confused, "I didn't sign up for this"

"I know, so I did for you!" Zidane said, grinning stupidly, and whispered, _"Shhh! I'll set you up on a date with Dagger if you win!" _

Dagger smiled at them, "What did you say to him, Zidane?"

"N-nothing!" both of them stuttered at the same time.

The man that had handed out the papers cleared his throat and said, "just to make sure, the prizes are as follows:

Zidane: 5000 Gil

Freya; Coral Ring

Vivi; a Theatre Ship Card

X; a new sword

Tori; ... ... a free chocolate icecream..."

"Figures" X said, looking at Tori.

"Aww...be nice!" Aiko said. She looked up at X, blushed, and gave him a quick kiss on the cheek, "Good luck!"

Zidane grinned at Dagger, "Do I get a good luck kiss?"

She frowned at him, and he took that as a no. He sighed, and ran to catch up with everyone else, who had started to leave already. As soon as he had gotten outside, he ran off looking for monsters to kill.

He spotted a wolf-like monster and chased after it through the Theatre District, trying to catch up with it.

"Dammit! Slow down! I'm not gonna hurt'cha!" he lied.

Just as he was about to attack it, a fireball came out of nowhere and burnt the monster to a crisp. Zidane stood there, looking stupid. He looked up in time to see Vivi skipping away, chasing after a bird-like monster.

"That was MINE!" Zidane yelled, but Vivi didn't seem to hear him. He stalked off to find some other monster.

"_Freya is now in the lead_!" a voice announce from one of the towers, "With Zidane in last place!"

Zidane went red in the face and charged after random mosters.

"_Zidane has made the lead_!" the voice announced several minutes later, "_Wait! No, he's tied for points with Freya! They will both take on the "boss" monster!"_

Zidane ran around the streets looking for this "boss" that the announcer was talking about, and found it; it was a giant bull.

Freya was lying on the ground not too far away, looking a bit worse far wear.

Zidane darted towards the monster and easily killed it. He heard Freya mutter, "Show off"

He grinned, "yeah, but at least I won!"

She got up and tackled him, "No one likes bragger. Congratulations anyways. Have fun with you date with the Princess" she said, and walked off.

"weird" he muttered, and walked towards the castle.

"Man! I coulda won too!" he heard Tori whined, "I almost beat that boss!"

X laughed, "That wasn't the boss, that was one of the easy creatures"

"Oh..."

Back at the castle, everyone was waiting, including the Regent Cid.

"You did it!" Dagger said happily.

"So...are we still going on a date?"

"Was it hard, fighting that one monster?" Dagger asked, changing the subject, "It looked tough!"

"Naw...and...about that date..."

"Yes...I bet that monster was tough!" Dagger said enthusiastically, and walked off to congratulate the others who didn't win.

There was a rasping noise behind them, and they stopped celebrating to see a Burmecian soldier limping into the room. He collapsed on the floor, and everyone could see he was drenched in blood.

"Burmecia...is under attack!" He coughed, "We need help from the Lindblum Army!"

Cid walked over to him and said reassuringly, "I'll send troops in right away.

* * *

REDG: okay, I think I'll leave off right here. The next chapter'll mainly be Dagger running off with Steiner (...that sounded wrong, didn't it?) and the rest of the group heading out to Burmecia. Alrighty, thanks for the reviews so far!  
Red-chan 


	17. Runaway

REDG: Hey! Y'know what? I love writing stuff in this Author's Note's section. I wonder if anyone actually reads it? Lalalalalalalalalalala (starts singing _ Stronger _by the Suga Babes). Lol Anyways...

**Yukina-chan:** Thankies for the ideas! I don't plan ahead much when I write, so I think its neat! Lol

**RefugeofSouls:** Meep...sorry about not updating! Lol Yeah, I love chocolate as well! drools.

**Kyoko :** Lol glad ya like the story so far. I don't think it'll turn really serious later! I'm gonna keep updating though! I've just been a little lazy about writing recently!

AGH! They took **Kiki the Black Witch** off ! Nooooo! pouts

* * *

Chapter 17  
Runaway

#At Lindblum Castle#

Later on that day, after the Burmecian soldier had been taken out of the castle for burial, everyone was gathered around a table that was piled sky-high with food.

"One of the traditions of the Festival of the Hunt, is to have a feast afterwards" Cid explained to everyone, who was looking hungrily at the steaming food.

Aiko looked down at the table, confused, and asked, "How come there's no forks or anything? How're you supposed to eat?"

"Ah...that's another tradition," Cid said, "You eat with your hands"

"Oh..." She said, and sat down next to X.

On the other side of the table, Tori and Steiner were...having problems.

"Hey!!!!" Steiner yelled as Tori stole a piece of chicken from his plate, "THAT WAS MINE!"

She glared at him, " Oh? And I care _why_?"

"Because I am Captain of-"

"-Yeah yeah yeah..." Tori muttered, cutting him off, "'captain of the Knights of Pluto, blah blah blah..."

Dagger got a worried look on her face, and said, "U-u-ummm...Tori, why don't you just give him the piece of chicken. He's going to bother you about it all day"

"True" Tori agreed and picked out something else from the stack of food. The worried look on Dagger's face eased up a little.

Freya pushed back her plate and leaned back in her chair, "I'm so full..."

X yawned, "You probably ate too fast"

Freya yawned as well, and said angrily, "Don't do that. Yawns are contagious"

"I can't help it...I think the Hunt wore me out..."

"Funny...I feel kinda sleepy too..." Aiko said, and put her head on the table.

They were all asleep within five minutes, except Dagger and Steiner, who was running around screaming, "POISON!!!!!!"

Dagger covered her ears and yelled, "Its not poison! Its only sleeping-weed, and there shouldn't have been any in your food!"

He immediately stopped, and looked embarrassed. "But why Princess?"

"I had no other choice, Zidane would never let me go" She said quietly, "we must go back to Alexandria at once to talk with Mother!"

"So you're really going to Alexandria?" Steiner asked happily.

"yes, Rusty." She said, and started to walk out of the castle.

#hours later#

Zidane was the first one to wake up. Once he found out that Dagger and Steiner were gone, he started yelling and kicking the table angrily, causing everyone else to wake up.

"Aiiiiiehhhh! Dagger's gone!" Aiko screamed.

Freya got up slowly and asked, "Do you think she might have gone to Burmecia?"

"I hope not!"

"well, there's only one way to find out, isn't there?" Cid said sadly, "The Dragon Gate is open. From there, it's a straight shot to Gizamaluk's Grotto. From there, you can reach Burmecia".

"Well? What're we waiting for?" Aiko asked, "We gotta go find her, so might as well get going now!" Everyone ran to catch up with her.

"She's really upset, isn't she?" X asked worriedly.

Tori nodded, "I think we all are"

* * *

REDG: Okay, I know this was a SUPER SHORT chapter, but I wanted to just break it off here. I should have an update by Monday or Tuesday. Really, I will! Lol until next time!  
Red-chan 


	18. Follow the Leader

Red-chan

REDG: Agh...I'm back again! Hehe...sorry for the delay again. Life threw a few curves at me. Lesee...oh, I know that this chapter doesn't exactly follow the game at most points, cos I can't remember what happened. So I'm improvising a little! XD

Note: this site is being evil! no underlining, bold print, or italics! wassup with that?

Anywho, hope ya like the new chapter! Enjoy! (btw, review responses are at the end of the chapter for some unexplainable reason.)

* * *

Chapter 18  
Follow the Leader

The group was now heading out of the Dragon's Gate. The Mist was everywhere, making the scenery around them murky and hazy. Zidane climbed on top of a tall rock and looked around for a few minutes.

"See anything yet?" X called.

Zidane jumped down from the rock and grinned, "Sure. Gizamaluk's Grotto isn't THAT far off, and there's this marshy-looking place directly ahead"

"Qu's Marsh" Freya corrected. "I suggest we go around it"

"But it'd take up less time if we just went through it. Its like a shortcut" Zidane argued.

"I wanna go to Qu's Marsh!" Tori said childishly, tugging at Freya's sleeve.

"Plus, if it means we'll get to Burmecia quicker..." Aiko said.

"Alright! Fine, we'll go!" Freya said, exasperated, "But don't blame me!"

They walked through the Mist a little more, luckily not encountering any monsters. Within a few short minutes, they had reached the edge of Qu's Marsh. It was dead silent, except for the sound of the wind passing through the thick tall plants.

"Its...k-k-k-kinda creepy" Vivi stuttered.

"Feh" Tori muttered, and started plowing her way through the plants. She looked back at everyone and called, "C'mon! Dagger ain't gonna wait for us to find her!". They all followed her into the marsh, careful to stick together and not get lost.

"I can't see anything except PLANTS! Everywhere!" Aiko said nervously, "what if we get lost?"

"We won't!" Tori said brightly, "Anyways, we'll hafta get to the other end some ti- AGH!"

She had tripped and falled face-first on the ground. Aiko stepped over her and pushed back some of the plants, "Hey...it's a clearing!"

"REALLY?" everyone said at once and ran out into the clearing, trampling Tori.

She got up and glared at Zidane.

"What? You shouldn't have been lying around there." He said simply.

She threw a rock at him, "I fell, you ass!"

They stopped arguing when Vivi pointed at something and asked, "...whats that?"

There was a fat person (if that's what you wanted to call it ) that was chasing after frogs and pouncing of them. Or tried to at least; it missed most of the time.

"That...is one of the Qu's" Freya muttered.

The 'person' looked up at them, and they could see it was completely covered. You couldn't see its face, or even a centimeter (A/N; for my American readers, that would be 1.2398724972947 inches. Lol) of skin showing.

"who are ya?" Zidane called.

"Quina" the thing said simply, and went back to chasing frogs.

"Ummm...you wouldn't know if we're heading the right way to go to Gizamaluk's Grotto, would you?" he asked.

Quina shrugged, ignoring him. "C'mon, let's go then" Zidane said, and started to walk towards the plants on the other side of the clearing, when another person walked out, that looked like Quina. It walked passed Zidane and the others and went straight towards Quina to hit it on the head with a giant wooden spoon.

"Quina no catch frogs!" It yelled angrily, "Quina stupid! Baka!"

"Quina no baka!" Quina argued.

"Yes baka!"

"No baka!"

"Yes baka!"

"No baka!"

The other person hit Quina on the head again and looked at Zidane, "Can Quale talk to you for a minute?"

"sure" Zidane said, "Who's Quale?"

The person pointed at itself. Zidane shrugged and walked off with the person to talk with it.

Freya paced back and forth impatiently, "See? I told you we should have gone around! This is just a waste of time!"

"...Do they all talk in third person?" X asked, and Freya nodded and rolled her eyes.

A few minutes later, Zidane skipped back and said proudly, "I offered to take Quina with us! Quale said he would want Quina to see the world!"

"WHAT?!" Freya yelled, "no! I will not allow it!"

Zidane ignored her and walked up to Quina to tell it the good news. They started walking again, with Quina going on and on about frogs, and Freya muttering about her getting a really bad headache. They trudged through the marsh for another hour or so until they were back in an open field.

"Look! Gizamaluk's Grotto is right up ahead!" Aiko said, pointing.

#Inside Gizamaluk's Grotto#

"It kinda smells in here" Tori complained, "like something's rotting...or burning"

She heard Aiko shriek in horror, and turned to see several Burmecian guards lying dead on the cold stone floor. Most were badly burned. She tried to swallow that nauseous feeling. Freya was pleading with the guards to get up.

"Freya..." Zidane said worriedly and put a hand on her shoulder. She shrugged it off and ran farther into the Grotto. Everyone else ran to catch up with her. As they walked on, they heard two people talking to each other.

"Who is that?" the first voice asked

"That, I don't know." The second one said.

The group looked around and saw two short people, both dressed in clown costumes; one red and one blue. X tilted his head to the side and said in a confused voice, "Clowns...?"

The red one ignored him and pointed at Zidane "I know I have seen him somewhere before."

"Somewhere before? I have not seen him. I know." The blue one replied.

"I guess it is not important. Let's kill him."

"Yes, kill him, shall we?" the other agreed.

From the shadows of the cave, several black mages came, muttering, "Kill..." in a monotone way.

Zidane's tail flicked in annoyance, and he started to run further back into the grotto.

"Hey! Aren't we going to fight them?" Aiko asked frantically, "What if they catch up?"

"We'll just hafta make sure they don't!" Zidane said, grinning, "Don't worry, I'll protect you!"

X shot him a quick glare, and Zidane decided it was time to shut up. They could hear the black mages getting further and further behind them, and eventually they couldn't hear them at all anymore. Everyone gave a sigh of relief and stopped to catch their breath.

Freya knelt down next to one of the fallen guards, and was surprised when his eyes shot open and said, "Freya! ...be careful! Master Gizamaluk...is not himself..." and died.

They silently went into the next room, which was just a short walkway to the outside, with water on either side of the path. If they were lucky enough, they wouldn't disturb Gizamaluk and would make it outside safely. They heard something from in the water growl menacingly and were certain that making it outside without a fight was out of the question.

Out of the water rose a giant monster, for a lack of a better word. Zidane glared up at it and yelled, "Ya gonna let us through or what?"

Gizamaluk answered by trying to bite Zidane's head off.

"Aright, that's how its gonna be, huh?" Zidane snarled, "Fine you little bastard! Your going DOWN, !"

* * *

REDG: well, that took a while! XD anywho...  
  
Yunie-chan: Yay! Thankies for all the reviews! Glad ya like the story so far!

Jenn Yukina: I was SUPER lazy on writing this chapter! I need to get better about updating! XD

Kyoko: Kuja should be coming up in the next few chapters or so. :3  
  
Lady Yunalesca88: Hmmm...will Tori see Kuja in Burmecia? (grin) you'll hafta wait and see!

Hugs for everyone! Until next time!

Red-chan


	19. Our Paths, They Did Cross

REDG: 'nuther chapter! Yay! Thanks for all the reviews once again! Yesh...Kuja finally makes another appearance! No review responses for this chapter cos I'm too lazy! Sorry! :p anywho...on with the fic!

* * *

Chapter 19   
**Our Paths, They Did Cross...**

A lone figure was walking through the mist towards the Grand Citadel South gate. One of the two guards on duty tried to squint to see who it was, but couldn't see through the mist. He nudged the other guard awake.

"Whot? I was havin' a nice dream I was!" the second guard snapped when he woke.

"Shhhh! There's someone coming you ninny!"

The stood and tried to look intimidating as the figure got closer. They saw that it was a short man with rusting armor, carrying a large sack. He made his way to the gate and was stopped by the guards. "he looks like a hobo" one of the guards whispered to the other and got an elbow in the ribs.

"Hold it! Whot is the purpose of your visit here?" the guard asked.

"I heard workers were needed to fix South Gate. I brought my belongings so that I might live and work here." Steiner (a/n: the hobo! XD) said, shrugging.

The other guard nodded, "We've been getting a lot of em. Just set down yer bag and lemme check it. Standard rules, y'know?"

He opened the bag and nearly choked on the smell that came from it, and immediately backed away, "I shoulda known! Gysahl pickles!"

Steiner shrugged again, "I can't go a day without them"

"Alright, you can go in" the guard said, "Just hurry up! That smell is horrible!"

He walked in, carrying the bag and looked around quickly before running into an alley and set down the bag. Dagger slowly stepped out of the bag.

"Mmm! Fresh air! That smell was awful!" she said and brushed the last bits of the pickles off her clothes.

"Umm...princess..." Steiner started, but got cut off by Dagger.

"Call me Dagger. At least until we reach Treno." She said sternly, "Now, can we get going?"

"Yes ma'am!"

Dagger rolled her eyes and followed Steiner to the cable cars. Beyond the cars, she could see mountains and a valley far below, "We're really going to get to Alexandria! Its just beyond those mountains!" Dagger said excitedly, "And we did it without Zidane's help!"

Steiner was about to point out that she really didn't need his help in the first place, but she was already running into the cable car to find a seat. He sighed and followed her.

(Back to Zidane)

They were all walking through a muddy field with Burmecia only a few feet ahead. The once great city was nothing more than ruins now. Freya hadn't said a word since she saw it, and that was making the rest of the group feeling very depressed.

"C'mon! Smile people!" Zidane said.

Freya glared at him, "Why? My home is ruined."

He pouted and shut up. Quina was the only one who was affected by the disaster, and was skipping ahead of everyone singing.

"_Frooooog!_" it sang happily, "_Frog, frog, frog, frog, frog_!"

Tori covered her ears and yelled, "Shut the _HELL_ up! You can't sing worth beans!"

It ignored her and kept on singing anyways.

Within minutes they reached the gates of Burmecia, now un-guarded and about to collapse. Beyond the gate were more ruins; houses with no roofs, shattered windows, upturned carts...

They heard people farther in the city talking and cackling that sounded a lot like the clowns they had come across in Gizamaluk's Grotto.

"See?" Aiko whispered to Zidane, "I told you they would catch up!"

"Shh!" he hissed, "Keep quiet and they might not find us"

They walked into the city, and saw Zorn and Thorn, the two clowns from the grotto with several black mages again.

Tori's eyes bugged out and she screamed, "STALKERS!!!!"

"... ... ...stalkers...?" Zorn and Thorn asked at the same time.

X smacked her on the back of the head and hissed, "This is no time to be messing around!"

"Then General will take care of you this time." Zorn cackled.

Thorn nodded, "No need for Black mages! Very scary, it is, when the general gets mad!"

They ran off leaving the group to stare with confused looks on their faces. They walked on to find that even the Royal Palace was wrecked. A few Burmecians that survived were pushing past the group to run from the city. One however, stopped them.

"Who are you?" he snapped, "Are you working with the Black Mages?"

"No" Zidane said, "We're here to help!"

"Lies! There's a Black Mage standing right behind you!" the Burmecian said, pointing at Vivi, who instantly went to hide behind Freya. The Burmecian looked at her, startled.

"Its good to see you, Dan" she said to him, "You'd better get out of here"

"But what about you?"

"I will defend my home at any cost," she said. He nodded and ran to leave the city.

"Yeah, that's right! We're gonna protect this pile of rubble!" Tori agreed, and got a glare from Freya. She walked on into what had been a courtyard at one point, and inspected it, while the rest of the group trailed behind. Suddenly, she jumped up to a higher level of the yard and called down to the group, "There's someone inside! Get up here now!" and ran inside of the Palace.

"You make it look _sooooo_ easy..." Zidane muttered, starting to climb up one of the statues. X was helping Aiko climb another statue. Zidane and Freya were the first to reach the top and crept along the walls behind a series of smaller statues, trying to get a look at who had attacked Burmecia. Sure enough, Queen Braune was standing there, talking to a woman with curled brown hair.

"I knew it!" Freya hissed, "Its Braune and that General of Alexandria, Beatrix!"

_**Flashback**_

_Freya and another Burmecian were standing in a building in Burmecia before its destruction. They were looking out at the pouring rain and talking. _

"_Sir Fratley, do you still insist on going on your journey?" She asked him._

"_Yes... Please understand, Freya. Right now, Burmecia is at peace, while other nations are slowly but surely gaining power. I don't even know if my spear alone is enough to protect Burmecia... ...which is precisely why I must go out into the world."_

"_Sir Fratley...I don't think I can live on my own-not without you."_

"_Freya, you're going to be fine. Trust your strength... and have faith in your destiny. Once I complete my journey around the world, I will return to Burmecia."_

"_Then promise me, one more time, that you will return."_

"_I promise"_

_**End Flashback**_

Zidane stared at Freya; she had that spaced-out look. "You okay?" he asked.

She nodded, and then squinted down at the figures who were talking and pointed, "Who's that?"

Zidane peered over the ledge and saw someone, either a flat-chested woman, or a really pretty guy with long silvery hair, walk up to the Queen and started talking to her. Zidane and Freya watched the group closely, and nearly yelped when someone tapped them on the back. Freya spun around and saw that it was just Tori, X, Aiko, and Vivi.

"Did we miss anything?" Tori asked.

"Oh, nothing much..." Freya snapped, "Except for the fact that I'm going to kick your ass! You nearly gave me a heart attack!"

"My heart bleeds" Tori said sarcastically and looked over the edge at the three people. Her eyes bugged out when she saw Kuja.

Freya saw her shocked look and asked, "You know him?"

Tori ignore her and started climbing down one of the statues looking well pissed.

"What are you DOING?!" Aiko asked, "They'll see you!"

Tori rolled her eyes, "That's the point. I gotta go kick Kuja's ass" and with that she finished climbing down the rest of the statue. When she got to the ground, she immediately went straight to Kuja, pushing past Beatrix, and latched onto his arm.

"Wha-?" he started, caught off-guard, "Oh...its you..."

"Don't start" Tori snarled, "What the HELL are you doing here?"

"Hmm...nothing important...just wrecking a few cities here and there..." Kuja said, and tried to pry her off his arm.

Someone coughed, and Kuja looked up to see Braune and Beatrix waiting for an explanation on who the blonde girl was.

"Oh...this is the summoner I was talking about. I believe that she will be useful for your future plans" he said to Braune.

Tori frowned, "I _told_ you, I can't summon. Baka."

They all ignored her.

"Burmecia will never fall!" a Burmecian yelled as he ran into the Palace, "Prepare to die!"

Beatrix smiled at him and asked, "You wish to fight me, Beatrix of Alexandria?" and laughed, "I commend your courage, but I will show you no mercy."

The Burmecian stood; shocked that he was face-to-face with the General. He let out a startled yelp when Zidane and the group jumped down from the ledges over head, and got ready to fight.

Freya smiled at him grimly, "We can take it from here. Run"

Beatrix inspected the newcomers can laughed, which was echoed around them, " I've never been so humiliated in my life. I once killed a hundred knights single-handedly... To me, you two are nothing more than insects!" And she charged at them, sword drawn, with a smug look on her face.

While on the other side, Tori was about to go ape-shit, for lack of a better word. Kuja had wrapped an arm around her waist to keep her from running off, pissing her off even more.

"Lemme go! I'm gonna kill that bee-yatch!" She snarled, and clawed at the arm around her, "I wanna help fight dammit!"

"No, your not" Kuja said bluntly, starting to lose his patience, "your going to Alexandria"

"Like hell I am!" Torus snorted, and was about to turn around and punch him. He easily caught her wrist, and before she knew it, was running away from the fight between her friends and the General.

Kuja glanced back at her while he ran, "You _are_ going. End of discussion."

"Discussion?! What discussion?!" Tori snapped, "And besides, how d'ya plan to get to Alexandria, monkey-boy?"

He laughed, "We're flying, of course"

* * *

REDG: (twitches) this came out really bad. Oh well, win some lose some I guess! (sweatdrop) please R&R! 

Love!

_**Red-chan**_


	20. A Little of You

REDG: Sorry about the long wait for an update! :p I don't really have an excuse except that I got into one of my lazy moods again. ehehehhh...it happens. Well, Enjoy!

Chapter 20

**A Little of You  
**

"We're flying on _that_?!" Tori yelped, and pointed at a huge dragon with silvery feathers, "No offence, Kujaku, but I kinda thought we'd be flying on something a little more…ummm…airship-like…"

"You thought wrong" he said simply.He climbed onto the dragon and held his hand out to Tori, "Come on, Alexandria awaits"

"Dramatic bastard" she muttered, and took his hand. Underneath them, the dragon spread its wings, sending a spray of rain and feathers all over the stone floor.

"You'll want to hang on to something" Kuja said.

Tori looked around and couldn't find anything, "What the hell'm I s'posta hang onto, stupid? There nothing here!"

The dragon flapped its wings, almost knocking Tori off its back. She instinctively wrapped her arms around Kuja's waist and hung on tight.

"Milady, would you mind letting go?" Kuja gasped, "Can't…breath…"

Tori ignored him and watched as Burmecia started getting smaller, as the dragon flew higher. She went from being pale as a sheet to a sickening shade of green.

"Kujaku?"

"Yes?" he asked, looking back at her worriedly.

"Lemmee off Goddammit!" she snarled.

**(Steiner and Dagger)**

On the cable car going to the Summit Station, Dagger was curled up on the seat, fast asleep. The conductor had announced that they would be arriving soon, but Steiner decided to not wake her until they had gotten there. She needed rest.

The car halted to a stop at the station, jolting Dagger awake. She stretched for a second and followed Steiner outside to wait for the cable car that would take them to Alexandria. They walked into the rest stop to go get something to drink and pass time.

"Awww crap! I missed my ride! Now what'm I gonna do?!" Dagger heard a familiar voice complain. She sat at her table drinking a steaming cup of coffee and listened to the rest of the conversation.

"How the hell should I know?" another voice, a more rough one, snapped at the first, "You were the one who wanted to watch the scenery while eating South Gate Bundt Cake! We're gonna be late getting back to Lindblum now you ninny!"

There was a short pause and then finally the second voice added, "I won't tell the Boss though, alright? So stop giving me those damned puppy-dog eyes!"

"Alright! Thanks! Let's eat another bundt cake!"

They walked in through the door of the rest stop and Dagger was shocked to see Marcus and Cinna walk in. Cinna headed straight towards the stall where Dagger had picked up her coffee, and bought several bundt cakes.

"Marcus! Cinna! Over here!" she called, waving enthusiastically. They grinned and walked over to the table she sat at. Unfortunately, Steiner decided to check on the princess as well, and ran into the two thieves.

"Scoundrels!" he yelled, pointing at them accusingly.

"Thanks!" Cinna said while eating a cake, "You want one of these? They're great!"

"Why thank y-… what the hell?! I refuse to sit and eat cake and drink tea with a bunch of thieves at a rest stop in the middle of nowhere! Are you here to kidnap the princess again!?"

"You coulda just said no…"

Dagger sighed and turned to Marcus, "You're Marcus, right? What are you doing here?"

"Nevermind that. Whats say you and I ditch the tin man and find a nice, quiet place?"

"How dare you talk to the Princess that way!" Steiner yelled, shoving Marcus away from Dagger, "She is not some prostitute"

"Steiner…" Dagger said, exasperated, "He was only joking. Don't take everything so seriously.". With that said, she asked what Marcus and Cinna where doing there again.

Marcus: When we escaped from Evil Forest...

"Princess! You shouldn't waste your breath on criminals!" Steiner said, butting in on their conversation again.

Dagger whirled around to face him and snapped, "Adelbert Steiner! If you interrupt me one more time I will have you demoted!"

"Wh-Wha...!?"

Dagger smiled sweetly, "Well, that got your attention. Anyways, can't I even talk to my friends?"

"Friends!? But they're..."

"…Steiner…help me out here…I'm thinking of a word that starts with 'D'. Maybe its demotion?"

Steiner said hurriedly, "Why don't you go talk to those thieves over there?"

"What a good idea Steiner! Brilliant!" Dagger said, patting him on the head and turned to talk to Marcus again.

"The cable car to Alexandria has arrived!" an Attendant on the platform announced.

" It's here!" Cinna yelped excitedly, and grabbed Marcus's wrist to drag him towards the cable car.

"But you're goin' to Lindblum, stupid!" Marcus snarled.

"I-I know that! But you're going to Alexandria!" Cinna said, "I'll see you off the the cable car!"

"Yeah, I'm heading to Treno."

"You're going to Treno? We are too!" Dagger said happily, and looked back at Steiner to see that he was almost pouting, "Let's go, Steiner. Steiner? Are you mad at me?"

"No…I'm coming" Steiner said tiredly, and got onto the cable car. The took their seats and within a few minutes the car started its engines to leave.

" Good luck!" Cinna called from outside, waving.

"Yeah. I'll save our bro!" Marcus called back, and waved back at him until he was out of sight.

Dagger looked over at Marcus and asked, "Who is 'Bro'?"

"Oh, you mean Blank!" Marcus laughed, "We all call him Bro. Anyways, we've been gathering info to cure his petrification. We finally learned about an item called Supersoft that cures all forms of petrification. Cinna's going to the Tantalus hideout to tell the others"

"I see..."

"It's my turn for questions. Where's Zidane? You dump him at Lindblum?" he asked.

"Heavens no!" Dagger said, "I left because Zidane was treating me like a child!"

Marcus shrugged, "Okay."

"… …Say, Marcus... Um, is there any way I can help with Blank. I feel partly responsible for what happened…"

"I'm fine on my own."

Suddenly, the cable car jerked and then stopped. Dagger looked out the window to see if they had already reached their destination, but saw that they were on a rocky hill instead of at a cable car station.

"Maybe the engine broke down?" Steiner mused, and leaned back in his seat to take a nap.

The conductor calmly walked into the passenger car and announced, "We're having slight difficulties. If you would please remain seated we-" he stopped and looked out the window, pointed, and screamed, "It's a demon! A demon with a pointy hat!!!"

Dagger and Steiner immediately jumped up, saying "Black Waltz!" in unison as they ran out the back of the cable car. Marcus walked out after them, muttering about how it had better be something important. He saw the Black Waltz and hissed, "What the _hell_ is that?!"

The thing cackled insanely and muttered in monotone, "Mission…retrieve princess…alive…"

"Agh! Night of the living Black Waltz No.3!!!" Dagger screamed and pointed accusingly at the mage. (a/n: sweatdrop…I had to write that).

"You monster!" Steiner roared and charged at the mage, blade swinging madly.

Marcus grinned, "Princess, can I steal its hat?"

"No…"

"Damn. I always wanted to know what they looked like underneath their hats" and ran off to help Steiner finish off the 3rd Black Waltz. When they battle was over, the guys ran back to Dagger, who was sitting on the ground, hugging her knees to her chest and staring at nothing in particular.

"Are you alright?" Steiner asked, "Who would do such a thing"

"I'm not that ignorant, Steiner, and neither are you" she stopped to glare at Marcus who had started laughing at that last bit, "I know I have to get back to Alexandria as soon as possible to talk with mother. Now lets go"

They headed back to the cable car in silence.

**(In Alexandria)**

Kuja and Tori had landed just outside of Alexandria. She was sitting down, still looking a bit dizzy, and the green tinge hadn't gone away from her face. Somehow she had managed to go through the whole trip without getting sick. Kuja on the other hand, now had bruises on his stomach from where Tori had inflicted her death-grip.

"Its not funny, you know" Kuja said, pouting.

"Deal with it" Tori muttered, "I got problems of my own right now"

"Well, I have to get you to Alexandria Castle so I can head to Treno."

Tori brightened up a little, "Treno! Ooo! Say hi to Yuki if you see him" She sighed when she saw the confused look on Kuja's face and explained, "He's got brown hair…in his thirties now…starting to go gray. He'll recognize you though, I'd bet"

"Whatever" Kuja said, shrugging, "Are you ready to go yet?"

Tori shook her head and mumbled, "Still feel sick."

Kuja grinned, "Well, I guess I'll have to carry you then, won't I?" and with that, scooped her up into his arms, one arm under the back of her leg and the other supporting her upper body.

Tori crossed her arms over her chest and muttered, "Jerk". Even so, she was at least a little happy that he was looking out for her at the moment.

**(Back on the Cable Car)**

"We're almost there! I can see the city from here!" Dagger enthused, pressing her face against the window to get a better view.

"Now…are you _sure_ you still want to help me find the Supersoft?" Marcus asked.

"Of course, silly! Plus, I'll get to see Treno! I haven't been here since I was little and still studying!"

The cable car stopped and they got off, relieved to be able to walk around again. They stretched a little before deciding to head out.

**REDG: **So, whatcha think so far? :D Good? bad? chicken? (Don't ask). Please R&R!  
On a different note, I gotta do some christmas shopping. o.O Goody...


	21. Gift

**REDG:** this is just a bonus chapter I wanted to write for Christmas! I couldn't help it! Lol It has nothing to do with the story! Its all just for fun! Sorry about not updating recently, but I have an excuse this time (proud grin). We're going on holiday over Christmas, and I had to get ready! Yesh...we're going on holiday! Not to Ibeeza or the Carribean (sob), but we _are_ going to Germany! Yay! I feel special.... ...ed. XD

Bonus Chapter (21)

**Gift  
**

(Treno)

Snow was starting to fall, leaving just a trace of white on the ground. People were rushing from store to store to get that last-minute gift for someone; Zidane and the others being some of them.

"I didn't get Dagger a present for Christmas!" Zidane whispered to the group, while Dagger looked into a shop across the street"

"What?!" Aiko asked, "Zidane!!!"

Tori looked up at the clock at the top of a tower, "Well, you still have some time to figure out what your gonna get her. Look, I gotta get going to meet someone! Later!" and with that she ran off into the lower section of the city.

Freya nodded and grabbed Steiner by the arm, "We're going to the pub for some drinks."

"What?!" Steiner yelped, "I am NOT going"

"Yeah…you are" Freya said bluntly, and dragged him off.

Zidane looked around frantically and saw that X and Aiko had also left.

"Awww! C'mon you guys! Gimme a break! I still dunno what to get her!" Zidane whined.

"Don't know what to get who?" Dagger asked, seemingly appearing out of nowhere.

"U-u-u-ummm…noone!" he stuttered.

She linked her arm in his and smiled, "Lets keep walking, okay? I want to look around some more"

* * *

X and Aiko walked down the streets, leaving Zidane behind; it was probably better to let him deal with his problem by himself. Aiko shivered at the cold, and X wrapped an arm around her. 

"You want to go inside somewhere?" he asked.

She nodded, "I think there's a small café a little farther up the street".

Once they found it, they walked inside the café, shook off the snow, and sat down at a small, round table.

They sat in silence for a while before Aiko burst out, "Okay! I can't wait anymore! Can I give you your gift now?"

X blinked and then smiled, "Sure. I'll give you mine as well I guess."

She reached into her bag that she'd set on the floor and handed him something that was wrapped in shiny green paper. He opened it to reveal a dark red scarf, and Aiko watched him nervously.

"Wow! Did you make this yourself? Its great!" X enthused. Aiko's face got about as red as the scarf's, but she still managed to look really pleased.

He carefully folded the scarf and set it on the table to get Aiko's gift, a new ribbon that was the same emerald colour as her eyes.

* * *

Tori arrived at Yuki's house just barely on time. He flung open the door and greeted her with a huge hug. 

"Tori-chan! I missed ya so much!!!" he said, not letting go.

"I can't breathe!" she gasped and he let go.

Yuki held open the door, "Well, c'mon in! Everyone's waiting!"

Inside the small room, Yasashii and the two little kids that Yuki was still taking care of, were crammed around the table. At the centre of the table was a plate with a whole chicken, a plate with potatoes, and a plate with vegetables.

"Hey guys!" Tori yelped, "I didn't think you'd be able to show up, Yasashii!"

The black-haired girl shrugged, "It's the least I could do. I had the day off anyways."

"Alright, everyone shut up!" Yuki said, and sat down at the table.

One of the little kids looked up at him and asked, "Are we gonna pray before we eat?"

Yuki rolled his eyes and said quickly, "Bless this mess,…now let's eat!"

No one argued with that; they all grabbed at the food and started chowing down.

In between mouthfuls of chicken, Yasashii asked, "So Kujaku ain't coming? Damned bastard". Tori responded by throwing a carrot at her. The little kids imitated her and started throwing their own carrots across the table.

"Hey! No throwing food in here!" Yuki yelled.

"Yessir" they all said in monotone, and went back to wolfing down their food.

* * *

Freya slumped down on her barstool next to Steiner and traced a nail in a puddle of beer that had spilt on the countertop. Steiner took a sip of his tea (he doesn't drink I guess). He looked down at the counter to see Freya had traced a figure in the beer that looked vaguely like a Burmecian. 

"Frately…why didn't you come back?" Freya whispered.

"Still miss him, then?" Steiner asked.

She nodded.

"I think you need to get some fresh air. The beer's making you depressed." Steiner muttered, and started dragging Freya out of the small pub. Outside, more snow had fallen, and the ground was almost completely covered.

Freya took a deep breath of the cold air and smiled, "You know…even though you look like a hobo stuck in a giant tin can, you can be pretty nice"

"Ha ha" he muttered sarcastically, "Happy Christmas. Now lets go see what that monkey-boy and the Princess are up to"

* * *

Zidane glanced at the clock on the tower again. Time was running out, and he still hadn't gotten Dagger anything. He started looking back at the shops that they were passing, seeing if there was anything inside. Most of the stores were closing by now, since it was getting dark. 

"Ummm…Zidane, are you alright?" Dagger asked.

"S-sure!" he lied, and then went back to looking at the shop windows again. A few minutes later, he suddenly stopped in front of a bookstore's display window and peered inside.

"Zidane…?"

"Hold on!" he called, as he ran into the store, "I'll be right back!"

Dagger waited, and wondered what was going on with the blonde. He came back minutes later, and handed her a book; an old copy of "_I Want to be Your Canary_". She looked at him confused.

"Sorry it's a bit last-minute, but I figured I'd get you this, since we met while we put on that play in Alexandria" he explained.

"That's so sweet!" he said, hugging him, "I'm sorry, I didn't get you anything!"

Zidane hugged her back and said, "I'll just think of this as my present then"

* * *

Tori was sitting at the fountain next to the gate that lead outside of Treno, holding a gift on her lap. It was well past midnight, and she felt stupid for having sat there, waiting for an hour. 

"_Did I really think he'd show up_?" she thought, "_he doesn't even really remember me_"

She frowned and got up to leave. She managed to run into someone, and fell.

"Watch where you're going!" she snapped, and then sat in shock when she realized who she had ran into.

"Merry Christmas to you too" Kuja muttered, and helped her up.

* * *

**REDG**: my brother keeps bugging me and asking what Tori got Kuja for Christmas. I'll just say a pair of boxers and pants. XD 

Anywho...have a great holiday people! Thank you so much to everyone who's reviewed! You don't know how much that helps me! Don't drink too much eggnog over the holidays!! Love!

_Red-chan _


End file.
